THESE are the scenes of devastation caused by vandals hot wiring a JCB and smashing it into five lorries, leaving an estimated £75,000 of damage in their wake.

Family company AYS Skip Hire, in Sturminster Marshall, have been left reeling after a group broke into their yard on Monday evening, powered up the seven tonne digger and rammed it into their fleet, even using the digger bucket to rip the lorry cabs apart.

They then slammed the JCB through locked gates to escape before abandoning it, pressed into a grass bank.

Arriving at Bailie Industrial Estate at 7am yesterday, manager Garry Smart was horrified to find his business in tatters.

Mr Smart, who thinks the vandals must have climbed over fences to get into the yard, said: “I’m full of shock, horror and devastation.

“We’re just a local business trying to get through the recession. I just feel whoever did this is absolutely heartless.

“They haven’t taken into consideration the welfare of the families of people who work here.”

AYS, employing nine staff, has been based on the estate for 15 years.

Mr Smart added: “We just keep ourselves to ourselves round the back of the estate. It’s not easy to find and we’ve done nothing to hurt anybody. I think it’s just totally callous. They certainly knew what they were doing, but I can’t understand why.”

Commercial Recycling and Quick Skips each lent AYS a lorry yesterday, and they’ve had to rent others out to carry on trading. Mr Smart said: “It’s going to be tough, but we’re going to fight on and not let this get us down.”

Dorset Police are investigating the extensive damage at the property in Bridge Street.

Anyone with information should contact 01202 222222 or the free and anonymous Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111.