A BOSS has hit out at thieves who put his brand new fleet of vans out of action – and left him thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Paul Standen, general manager at Thermoshield Windows, blasted the crooks after they stole four catalytic converters from his vehicles, worth a total of £3,200.

The firm has now had to delay selling its old vehicles while the new ones are repaired, and Mr Standen is still waiting to hear whether his insurers will even pay out.

Mr Standen, 52, said: “We got the new vans because we are getting even more contracts.

“We are one of the few firms getting busier, then this happens.

“Some scrote has come down here, got underneath the vans and just unscrewed the converters.

“It’s just so annoying, as normally the vans wouldn’t have been here together at the same time.

“They go home with our workers, but we had them here to take photographs of them.”

The vans had been left parked outside the business, based at the Purdeys industrial estate in Purdeys Way, Rochford.

One of the company’s fitters had gone to move one of the vehicles when the exhaust sounded like it was blowing.

When the worker went to investigate he discovered the catalytic converter – which cuts fuel emissions – had been taken, along with the converters of the three other new Citroen Relays. Mr Standen added: “We were hoping to sell the old vans, but now we’ve had to delay that while these ones get repaired, which means we are now paying tax and insurance on two lots of vehicles.

“We’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

Anyone with information about the theft can contact police at Rochford on 0300 3334444.