A BARRY building developer is offering a reward for the return of a valuable piece of machinery stolen last month.

Sometime between 4.30pm on Thursday, January 23 and 7.30am on Friday, January 24, the Westbury Show Homes building site at St David's Wharf on the Waterfront was broken into.

A piece of machinery called a power cropper worth £25,000 was taken.

It had been hired by Macob who have put up £1,000 for its return.

Thieves broke a link in the chain securing the main entrance of the site and entered the compound.

Scoring on the ground shows where the cropper was dragged for nearly a metre before it was lifted up and taken away

The cropper is a large piece of equipment used in heavy construction work.

It weighs a massive one tonne, stands 1.5 metres tall and is 1.3 metres wide and is bright red.

Macob's foreman at the site Terry Richards said: "The power cropper effectively nibbles away at concrete posts hammered into the ground.

Without one, we cannot continue our work.

We'll have to hire another one, we've been without this equipment for three weeks.

"Whoever stole it had to come prepared.

There is no way anyone could lift this machine without the proper rigging. They had to know what they were doing."

The cropper was rented from the Mr Cropper company in England and Macob are eager to see it returned.

This piece of machinery is extremely rare as the company patented the design, so it can be easily recognised.

It also has the identification number, PC1484 welded to the top of it .

Police are appealing to anyone who has information regarding this crime to contact PC Judith Lennard or the CID department, at Barry Police Station on 01446 734451.