A ROSSENDALE businessman who had his £40,000 car stolen has offered a £1,000 reward for its return and the conviction of whoever stole it.

Peter Foulds, 42, who owns Spring Vale Leather, in Rawtenstall, discovered his silver BMW 540 was missing at lunchtime on Thursday and reported it to the police.

He is desperate to get it back not only because of the monetary value, but because it also contained a bible which his wife gave to him.

He said: "The car is obviously worth a lot and I would like to get it back, but there's also the sentimental value because the bible that my wife gave me in 1988 was in the car.

"I can buy another car but I can't get that back. I am driving the works van at the moment, but we do a lot of exporting and pick customers up from the airport, so we need something that is a bit nicer, like the BMW, for that.

"If I don't get it back I'm going to lose about £15,000 on it through insurance.

"People shouldn't be able to get away with doing this and if the reward helps, then I'm happy to pay it to anyone coming up with information which will lead to the cars whereabouts and a conviction.

"What is annoying is that I own my own business and have lived in the Valley all my life and I am trying to bring employment into the borough and boost the area and then people do stupid things like this.

The thief is thought to have gone into the office and taken the keys between 12.50pm and 1pm when it was empty for a short time.

Peter added: "I don't know whether it was just an opportunistic thief who went into the office to ask about a job while seeing if it was empty, but they were quick. My secretary was upstairs because the computer was being fixed and I had been called into the factory."

The car also contained motorbike accessories worth £1,000 and 10 Christian CDs.