Businessman captures 'perfect CCTV of thieves stealing £26,000 of luxury chairs' - but claims police were too busy to investigate

An outraged businessman claims he captured 'perfect'
CCTV as £26,000 of his luxury chairs were allegedly
stolen - but police were too busy to investigate.
Jack Whiteley recorded super-sharp images as 160
chairs were apparently taken over three days in a row
- and supplied them with the 'getaway' van's licence
plate to officers.
The police support worker involved even thanked Mr
Whiteley via email for "making my day with such good
evidence" and passed it on to officers at Essex Police
to investigate.
But a week later the father-of-two was apparently told
police were too busy to help.
An email from the force said: "They are unable to
assist as they are at saturation point with their own
workload."
And when he complained, the civilian worker handling
the case added: "I fully understand and indeed share
your feelings.
"As a businessman you will I am sure recognise that if
your business expands there is a need to increase
your ability to meet that demand, but in the police
service we do not have that freedom, and indeed the
reverse has been true for many years now."
Mr Whiteley, 69, said he fears the £160 each chairs
stolen from his warehouse in Essex have been sold on
at a knock down price.
He said: "When I told the police they said I had
handed it to them on a plate and the person on the
phone said it was a 'slam dunk'.
"On Tuesday, they said they had all the evidence.
"By Friday, nothing had happened so we rang the
police again and asked what was going on.
"On Monday morning we rang Southend Police again
only out find out...in their words, they were too busy.
"Why are we paying taxes for a service that does not
work and not for the first time doesn't seem to care?
"We told the police we'd send a lorry to collect the
goods once they had been located but, by now,
they've probably been sold on."
State of the art CCTV captured a hat-wearing man
spending 45 mintues bundling the chairs into a Ford
Transit van on August 26.
They were stacked behind the Glencrest Seatex Ltd
warehouse which was full and the suspects entered
through the front where a gate is yet to be installed.
The alleged thieves returned on August 27 and 28,
accompanied by a woman, and stole more chairs.
Mr Whiteley discovered their chairs were missing a
few days later, but was delighted to discover he had
super-clear CCTV images.
The police worker - a former detective - wrote back:
"Having looked at the investigation and I will be totally
honest, the matter was allocated to a PC by his Sgt.
"The PC is now on rest days and leave.
"I have seen that PC Brannon has conducted ANPR
work on the vehicle [...].
"I have spoken to the police team on duty today and
having appraised them of the circumstances, they are
unable to assist as they are at saturation point with
their own workload
"I am truly sorry to be the bearer of such news."
He later added: "I know that I speak for many of my
operational colleagues when I say that our present
situation is incredibly frustrating - perhaps the
business equivalent is knowing that you could secure
an extremely lucrative contract for your company but
you don't have the capacity to do so.
"I can assure you that there are frequent occasions in
my current role when, if I still held a warrant card, and
I had access to a car, I would gladly go out and deal
with the problem immediately - your report is just
such a case."
Mr Whiteley, who described the situation as
"extremely annoying", said: "I'm going to put a big
high voltage gate up to stop this happening again and
whilst it is costly, it won't bankrupt us.
"It's the principle of putting something on a plate for
the police and them being too busy to act which is
most upsetting."
A spokesperson for Essex Police said the incident has
been "allocated to an investigating officer and CCTV
footage from the incident has been reviewed".
They added: "Essex Police receives about 650
emergency (999) calls every day, in addition to about
900 calls on the non-emergency number (101).
"Incidents which present the greatest level of
immediate risk of harm to the public will always be
treated as a priority.
"Theft from businesses can cause significant financial
loss and we take all reports extremely seriously,
however, the operational response to any incident is
based on the threat, harm and risk posed to the
public."

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