Thieves have taken a steam engine worth £25,000 from a home in Chatham.

The 4" scale Sentinal steam engine was taken out of a trailer parked on the driveway of owner Ian Day

The 55-year-old had secured the engine at his home in Lordswood after spending the day at a steam fayre in Woodchurch.

He said: “We got back quite late so I left it secured on the driveway and parked our motor home across the front of it.

“I came down this morning to find the padlock on the trailer cut off and the steel ties holding it in cut off too.

“They had managed to squeeze it past the motor home too. It can’t have been an opportunistic thing, they had clearly planned it.”

Mr Day began building the engine with his late father and the two of them spent over 2000 hours building it.

He spent six years building it from scratch and takes it to around 14 steam engine shows throughout the year.

It weighed around 700 kilograms and Mr Day thinks it would have taken at least four people to carry it.

He added: “It’s not the money that’s of value, it’s the six years of my life I’ve put into building it.

“We don’t have any idea who would have done this. We didn’t hear anything, not even the dogs barked when it was happening.”

A spokesman for the police said: "Kent Police was called at 10.01am on Monday 7 August 2017 to a report of a trailer being stolen from a driveway in Lords Wood Lane, Chatham.

"The trailer is reported to have contained a replica steam engine. Anyone with information can call Kent Police on 01634 792209 quoting reference 07-0326. Enquiries into the theft are ongoing."