Hooded burglars smashed their way into a Rayleigh gym and stole £6,000 worth of equipment and Christmas presents.

Three bricks were hurled thrown through the window of Aspire Active gym, in Rayleigh’s Brook Road Industrial Estate, at about 4.30pm on Monday.

The building’s CCTV cameras captured two cars turning up outside the gym before three men ran inside.

They ransacked the reception area, stealing ten packets of NRG fuel whey protein, three containers of Multipower protein powder and ten boxes of assorted sunbed creams.

The till drawer, containing £50, was taken along with two children’s YCF motorbikes, which were to be given to owner Gary Hope’s children for Christmas.

Bizarrely, the raiders even took two sunbed token dispensers, which has rendered the sunbeds powerless.

Manager Mitchell Waters, 20, said: “One of my colleagues turned up at 6am to discover that the front window was smashed and there was glass all over the floor.

“Luckily enough they didn’t go into the gym. They just stayed in reception. The CCTV shows they were in the building for about half-an-hour.

“They probably took nearly £6,000 worth of stuff.

“They all wore tracksuits with their hoods up and one of them had a pair of shoes on with hi-vis material on the back.”

Mr Waters said the theft and damage didn’t stop the gym from opening up to customers.

He said: “One of the members of the gym is a glass fitter so he came to fix the window on Monday, so luckily there wasn’t too much disruption.”

Mr Hope is offering a £1,000 reward to anyone who can give any information that will lead to the conviction of the people responsible and the return of the items stolen.

Anyone with information can call Essex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.