GARAGES in north Essex have been warned to be vigilant after two service stations were ram-raided in two days.The Shell garage in Main Road, near Great Bentley, was raided in the early hours of yesterday morning , just 24 hours after a similar swoop at Lawford service station in Long Road.

GARAGES in north Essex have been warned to be vigilant after two service stations were ram-raided in two days.

The Shell garage in Main Road, near Great Bentley, was raided in the early hours of yesterday morning , just 24 hours after a similar swoop at Lawford service station in Long Road.

Police are linking the two incidents and believe the targets in both cases were stand-alone cash machines.

It was the third ram-raid at the Great Bentley Shell garage in two months.

In yesterday's raid, raiders smashed through the door of the kiosk area in a stolen Range Rover shortly before 2am. The vehicle had been taken from a house in Boxted four hours earlier.

They tied a cable round the cash machine and tried to pull it out of the garage, which was shut for the night.

However, the machine had been emptied and the thieves fled empty-handed, and abandoned the badly damaged Range Rover.

The night before, Lawford service station in Long Road was also hit when a Daihatsu Terio stolen from Bures, Suffolk, was used to ram through its doors.

Again, police said nothing was taken from the garage, although they described the damage as extensive.

Last night, the owner of the Shell garage in Bentley, PrinceJoseph

, said he was "fed up" with the crime spree.

"What are these people up to? How foolish are they? Don't they know we always empty all cash from the premises, including from the ATM, every night.

"Maybe they want sweets or something, but it is costing us a lot of money.

He claimed in September, a stolen Ford Fiesta car rammed through the doors - again when the garage was shut for the night.

"Before we had a chance to board the place up, they came back and tried again the next night – they must be very dim," he said, adding he would now be installing strengthened security shutters as a further precaution.

The owner of Lawford service station said he did not wish to comment.

Det Sgt Martin Brough, from Clacton CID, said: "These latest two incidents could well be linked and it does appear the ATMs were the targets.

"In the Bentley incident, we would like to speak to the driver of a black R-registered VW Golf that was seen in the area.

"And we are also appealing for the driver of – or anyone who may have seen - an old style Ford Sierra who in the area of the Lawford raid to come forward."

Witnesses are asked to call Clacton police on 01255 221312.