When Jack Whiteley caught on camera the thieves who stole £26,000 of garden furniture from his warehouse, he congratulated himself on handing the case to police on a plate.
But the businessman was left distraught after officers failed to arrest the criminals because they were ‘at saturation point’ and the policeman allocated the case was off work.
In an astonishing email confession, a civilian police worker explained that despite identifying the owner of the van used to take the furniture, as well as tracking the vehicle’s movements, no action had been taken.
He wrote: ‘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.’
Brazen: Cameras caught a man and a woman loading £26,000 of luxury furniture on to a Ford Transit van
The civilian worker, who was a former police officer, said there were ‘frequent occasions’ when he would be willing to solve a case himself if he had a warrant card and a police vehicle.
Mr Whiteley, 69, who runs a company designing and distributing outdoor furniture, said he was left upset at the police response.
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”.
‘They said they had all the evidence and the crooks bang to rights. When nothing happened we rang the police again only to find out that no one had visited them. 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.
‘It’s the principle of putting something on a plate for the police and them being too busy to act which is most upsetting.’
Loading onto a van: The woman thief caught on CCTV at Jack Whiteley’s warehouse
Mr Whiteley discovered the chairs went missing from behind his warehouse in Leigh, Essex, late last month. A new state-of-the-art £3,500 CCTV system caught a man and woman loading them on to the back of a Ford Transit over three days.
The footage included their faces, the van and even its number plate. When Mr Whiteley exchanged messages with Essex Police, a staff member thanked him for ‘making my day with such good evidence’.
But a week later nothing had happened, with another member of staff explaining the PC allocated to the case was off.
The police worker wrote in an email: ‘Having looked at the investigation and I will be totally honest, the matter was allocated to a PC by his Sergeant. The PC is now on rest days and leave.’
He added: ‘I know that I speak for many of my operational colleagues when I say that our present situation is incredibly frustrating.
Upset: Business owner Jack Whiteley
‘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.’
Essex Police said it prioritises incidents where there is an immediate risk of harm to the public.
A spokesman said: ‘Attempts have been made to contact the victim without success. Enquiries are ongoing.’
In common with other forces, Essex Police, which has an annual budget of about £262million, faces swingeing cuts.
Its chief officers anticipate that by 2019-20, it will have to find savings of up to £63million to balance the books.
They have already reduced the number of police stations open to the public from 25 to ten, and drastically cut civilian and PCSO employees.
Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh said the force had abandoned ‘minor incidents’ such as noise complaints as he called on the public to ‘help us’.