Waterlooville family firm left £50K out of pocket after ram-raiders steal two 18ft luxury toilet trailers

The 18ft trailers, worth £25,000 apiece, were driven away at speed after thugs charged through the locked 40ft gates at Convenient Hire Limited.

Dramatic CCTV footage shows the raid unfolding at the company's Aston Road base in Waterlooville just after 7.45pm on Tuesday.

David Poynton, one of the company’s directors, said the equipment was booked to bring in £10,000 of business from events over the summer.

But he is determined not to let the ‘huge loss' scupper peak season revenues for the company, which was founded by his family in 1992.

‘As well as physical and financial damage caused by this, we have now got a lot of borrowing of equipment to do from other places,' he said.

‘And because these are specialist pieces of equipment they’re on a very long delivery diary – August is the earliest they can be replaced.

‘But we will not be letting our customers down. They will be none the wiser.’

CCTV shows the firm’s gates being rammed down by a reversing 4x4 at 7.44pm, before a man jumps out to cut the entangled vehicle free.

A minute later two men move the gates on foot to free up space for the 4x4 and another car to enter Convenient Hire Limited’s yard.

Both toilets are then attached to the trespassing vehicles and rapidly trailed out at 7.48pm and 7.50pm.

A cyclist in Aston Road is seen passing the crime scene at 7.46pm.

Mr Poynton said: ‘I was surprised that while they were ram-raiding and charging the 40ft gate to the ground, there was a cyclist who went past and a number of people just walking by.

‘I thought in this day and age people were photographing everything – or that they would report it to the police at least.’

The luxury loos have previously been hired out for the HMS Sultan Show, the Victorian Christmas Festival at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the Gosport Waterfront Festival and a host of events on Southsea Common.

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They are off-white in colour with Convenient Hire in gold writing on the outside.

A Waterlooville police spokesman said: ‘One of the toilet units had lights on the back and one didn't – neither of them had number plates.

‘On viewing CCTV it can be seen that members of the public have passed this incident taking place.

‘We ask that if anyone has any information in relation to this, or saw the described units in the area around this time, please call 101 quoting reference 44200063306 or email [email protected].’