The owner of a burgeoning electric scooter business says he is “devastated” after a gang of thieves ram raided his garage and made off with £10,000 worth of stock.
Richard Gapper, 37, director of Ev-Tek, a start-up electric scooter business in Beccles, believes he has been targeted by an “organised gang” after they rammed the door of his business late on Saturday.
Suffolk Police confirmed that 12 to 15 electric scooters were stolen in the raid, which took place at 9.25pm, with eight or nine people travelling in two vehicles involved.
The vehicles are thought to be a Suzuki Jimmy 4X4 jeep and a Ford Transit van.
During the incident another vehicle drove up to the site but the suspects told them to leave.
It has left Mr Gapper devastated. He said: “This is my livelihood. I’ve felt a range of emotions from sadness, to anger and just crying.”
Ev-Tek opened up in May and as a shop in July and Mr Gapper said the theft would hit his business hard.
“On Sunday morning at 8am I received a call from one of the track staff nearby and I knew something wasn’t right,” he said.
“Me and the business owners are from the Beccles and Lowestoft area. You just don’t expect something like this to happen around here.
“I’ve put so much time and effort into this business and when I first heard about the burglary my initial thought was ‘what is the point?’
“But you’ve just got to pull on through, haven’t you? The thieves stole a lot of things. I’ve lost around £10,000 and there is strucutral damage to the garage.
“There were nine of them. My conclusion is that this is some kind of organised crime.”
Mr Gapper is now very low on stock and is worried how this will affect business.
He said: “It takes six to eight weeks for the electric scooters to be delivered to us.
“I don’t know how we will get through.”
Police would like to trace the occupants of the vehicle that was turned away as they could have information to assist the investigation.
Officers are asking these witnesses or anybody else who saw anything suspicious, or drivers who captured any relevant dash-cam footage to contact Lowestoft CID quoting reference 37/59132/20.
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