A CHORLEY car dealer was left staring at thousands of pounds worth of damage after vandals attacked his business.

Shocked Howard Lowick, proprietor of Motorhouse, Bengal Lane, Chorley, turned up for work to discover that 19 of his cars on display outside had been doused with paint stripper.

Mr Lowick told The Citizen he suspects it was carried out by someone with a grudge against him or his business.

He said: "The cars were left out on display, as they always are, but when I came into work I got the shock of my life.

"Someone had sprayed them, stripping the paint down right to the bare metal. And you could tell it wasn't just drunks or youths running past and splashing it on -- they had purposely walked around each vehicle as if it were a planned attack."

The garage has around 35 cars on display at any one time, either inside or out on the forecourt, meaning that more than half the vehicles were damaged. Police attended the scene and forensic investigators tested the cars, but to date the mystery vandals have not been caught.

The cars were taken away for repainting and many are back at the garage, but Mr Lowick said the incident, on Good Friday, has disrupted business.

Now the dealership has spent thousands of pounds on installing 24-hour CCTV cameras and is planning to build security fencing around the site.

He said: "We have no enemies as far as I'm concerned. All I know is you don't carry paint stripper around with you on a night out and vandalise things on the spur of the moment, so someone must have planned this."

If you have any information call Chorley Police on 01257 269021.