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THE manager of a specialist audio visual firm in Larne this week vowed not to let the thieves who stole over £15,000 of equipment put him out of business.
Police in Larne are appealing for information following the burglary at a LEDCOM Industrial Estate unit in which a substantial amount of specialist equipment was taken - including several plasma display screens worth around £12,000.
Mark Restrick, the manager of Beam Audio Visual, this week vowed to continue the business - which only opened in January. The firm - which also has offices in England - sells ICT-related equipment to the commercial and education sectors and the business was also doing a healthy trade in digital TVs and plasma screens to the general public.
Thieves took Mark's personal laptop, which contained pictures of his family including his two-year-old son's birthday. Severe damage was caused to the roof and ceiling of the property during the raid, which was discovered last Thursday and immediately reported to police.
As well as the plasma display screens, TV sets, laptop computers, projectors and specialist cabling were stolen. A sum of cash and a safe were also taken.
Mr Restrick said: "They basically took everything they could. They ripped the roof off and damaged the unit beside us and threw stuff everywhere."
Mr Restrick estimated the value of stock taken to be in excess of £15,000 and that is before the cost of building repairs - likely to be thousands of pounds - are taken into account. Some of the equipment, he said, will be useless to the thieves as it requires detailed technical knowledge to install and would not be easy to sell on to an unsuspecting business or member of the public.
Items taken during the burglary included a Samsung display screen, a 32" Toshiba plasma screen, a 42" LG plasma screen and a 42" Samsung screen. Mr Restrick opened the business in January and has many jobs pending but no equipment to install following the break-in. "It's not just the monetary value; the equipment was for other jobs so it's put us back to square one. There were a lot of people buying TVs from me and saving a lot of money on plasma screens," he said.
Mr Restrick said that he hopes insurance will cover the lion's share of the cost to his business and vowed to "take it on the chin" and continue trading.
However, he added that he will now have to take precautions and desist from keeping stock in Larne to minimise the risk of theft in the future.
Anyone with information regarding this incident can contact Larne Police on 0845 600 8000. Alternatively members of the public can pass information anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

21 March 2007