TWO cars were stolen from a Pendle taxi firm after its offices were broken into and ransacked.

Burglars removed a wooden panel housing the letter box in a window at the office to break in, taking float cash and the keys to the two cars before driving away in them, between 3am and 4am on Monday.

One of the cars, a silver Toyota Avensis, was found in Wenning Street, Nelson, at 3am yesterday, undamaged but with a satellite navigation system and car stereo stolen from it.

Police are still searching for the other vehicle, a red Toyota Avensis, registration W173 LMS.

Pendle Taxi Association president Mohammed Akram said that the council, community safety partnership and police should take swift action over attacks on taxi drivers and offices.

But police said they held regular meetings with taxi drivers, and that the incident was "unusual".

Sergeant John Fryer, of Colne police, said: "Police have a very good working relationship with the taxi drivers in Colne and we discuss all the issues at monthly meetings.

"This is a one-off incident.

"We have already recovered one vehicle within 24 hours of the crime and returned it to them after forensic tests, and we are looking for the other one."

Mohammed Zaman, manager of the firm, Taxis and Minibuses, in Dockray Street, Colne, said: "Thankfully the silver car was spotted and hopefully the forensics from that will mean they can catch who was responsible and get the other car back too. They must have been quite determined. They made quite a mess of the office and they managed to squeeze through a very small hole to get in.

"It's obviously caused a few problems for us the following morning but things like this are quite rare."

Anyone with information about the incident should contact police on 01282 42501, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.