A businessman is counting the cost after thieves stole 200 miniature motorcycles from the back of a lorry while the driver slept.

Stephen Tasker's mini-bike import firm lost £40,000 of stock when a gang of thieves stole the bikes from a sealed steel container.

Police said the raiders struck when the driver, who was travelling from Southampton to Clitheroe, pulled over on the A34 in Berkshire for a sleep.

Equipped with acetylene burners, the thieves cut open the container unit without waking the driver and made off with 200 Hymoto Dirt Rider' bikes.

The driver only discovered the theft the morning after.

Mr Tasker is managing director of Hymoto Ltd, based on the Link 59 business park, Clitheroe, which is the UK's only company to import the bikes from China.

They sell for around £200 each, are aimed at over 14-year-olds and are distributed to a number of dealers around the world.

Mr Tasker, 45, said: "This is one of the stranger cases of its kind that I've ever heard of. For thieves to work so quietly and take away such a volume of goods is quite astonishing.

"The kind of intelligence needed by the thieves to carry off this theft suggests they may have had knowledge of my business and the products.

"Luckily, I've still got a decent stock of these machines and the stolen bikes were insured."

The incident happened between 10pm on Wednesday and 4.30am on Thursday.

Anyone offered a bike in suspicious circumstances can phone Thames Valley police on 0845 8505505.