Jaguar Land Rover Solihull site has engines 'worth £3m' stolen

JLR said a reward was on offer after it fell victim to a robbery at its Solihull plant

Engines reportedly worth £3m were taken from a Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plant by thieves using a suspected stolen truck to hook up to trailers.

The truck was believed to have twice gone into the Solihull site on Tuesday night or Wednesday and the trailers have since been found empty, police said.

Sources claimed the first theft took just six minutes and took place in front of CCTV, Birmingham Mail said.

JLR said a reward was on offer.

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The West Midlands force described it as a "large scale theft" of Jaguar Land Rover engines, which was believed to have taken place at the Lode Lane site between late night Tuesday and the early hours of Wednesday.

Birmingham Mail said insiders stated the stolen 40 tonne lorry arrived at the depot at 22:30 GMT on Tuesday.

It added sources claimed the criminals obtained paperwork from the site before leaving, making their escape easier, and the stolen lorry was believed to have unloaded in the Coventry area before returning to the factory and hooking up another trailer.

Police described it as a large scale theft from the plant, which has been the home of Land Rover for more than 65 years

Police said they had seized the empty stolen trailers.

Asked by the BBC whether any JLR staff had been arrested or dismissed, a company spokeswoman would not comment.

In a statement, JLR said it could confirm it was "working closely" with police to "investigate the theft of engines from the Solihull manufacturing plant".

It said: "A reward is on offer to anyone who has information which leads to the successful recovery of these engines.

"It would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment whilst this investigation is ongoing."