A BURGLARY in which more than £20,000 worth of equipment was stolen from Okehampton Golf Club on Monday evening has been linked to a series of other golf club burglaries in the area. Four clubs, mainly in the Newton Abbot area, have been burgled in the last few weeks and police believe an organised gang with more than one vehicle is responsible for these and the incident this week in Okehampton. The alarm was activated in the pro shop at 10.40pm. Police officers and the key-holder quickly arrived at the scene, but there was no trace of the culprits. Burglars smashed the door of the shop and took golf clubs. Secretary of the club Clive Yeo said the shop had only been open a couple of months after a major building programme at the club where new changing rooms and kitchens had also been installed. He said; ?We have had break-ins before but nothing on this scale. ?It just leaves a nasty taste in your mouth when we have just completed the new building and new facilities, spending hundreds of thousands of pounds.? Mr Yeo said the burglars could not have been at the scene for longer than five to ten minutes. Police are appealing for people to come forward who might have been in the area at the time or who saw several vehicles leaving the Okehampton end of the golf club at around 11pm. ?This is a high value burglary where approximately £20,000 worth of golfing equipment was stolen,? said West Devon sergeant Ian Woods. ?It is currently being investigated by DC Pete Wilson, of Okehampton CID, who is seeking information regarding this burglary and the other golf club burglaries in the Newton Abbot area.? Sgt Woods said police were offering crime prevention advice to golf clubs and increasing police presence at these premises. Officers are of the opinion that the crime in Okehampton was carried out before midnight because the vehicles would have been less conspicuous than in the early hours due to more traffic being around. A gang of four to six people are suspected to be involved in the burglary. Both Hele Park and Stover Golf Clubs in the Newton Abbot area were targeted on two occasions. Okehampton Golf Course has undergone six months of building work, replacing three old wooden sheds with a state-of-the-art building. The former shop was closed in January and opened again in June, selling a much larger range of equipment. The golf club committee said it had no facilities for anyone to be on site at night for security purposes but it would be considering CCTV as a deterrent or a vehicle barrier across the entrance road which is a public bridleway. But Mr Yeo said even extra security measures would probably not have stopped the burglars on Monday: ?These are professionals. They come in hooded and gloved up and are in and out within ten minutes.?
