Gems worth £1m snatched from car

Officers believe the snatch may have been pre-planned

A briefcase containing jewellery worth nearly £1m has been stolen from a car parked on a petrol station forecourt.

The owner left his blue Volkswagen Passat for a couple of minutes as he paid for fuel at a Sainsbury's filling station in Wiltshire on Monday.

When he returned, the case of platinum, gold and diamond jewellery was missing.

Police said the man, who does not want to be identified, was travelling from his Oxfordshire home to an undisclosed location when the theft took place.

A spokeswoman from Sainsbury's confirmed that an incident had occurred at its petrol station in Stratton, Swindon, but was unable to give any details about the theft.

The exact value of the missing gems, which were in a black Samsonite case beneath the driver's seat, has not been confirmed but the jewellery is believed to be worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Det Con Paul Hacker of Wiltshire Police said while thefts from cars in Swindon was not unusual, the high value involved in this case was "very rare".

Officers believe this may have been a pre-planned snatch, but are not ruling out the possibility of it being an opportunist theft.

An inquiry into the incident is under way and detectives are examining CCTV footage from the garage.