TAXI drivers are being warned after a spate of break-ins to vehicles across Bolton.

Vehicles have been hit in areas including Deane, Great Lever and Heaton over the past ten days.

Taxi driver Omar Akhtar is one of the drivers who has been hit and has heard of as many as 20 reports of vehicles, especially minibuses, having their windows smashed.

Mr Akhtar said that on each night the thieves target a different area of the town and hit taxis while they are parked up.

They are believed to be using a shatter hammer and smashing the small pane of glass next to the window above the wing mirror.

Mr Akhtar lives in Deane and his vehicle was parked in Gilnow Road on Friday night when it was hit by the thieves.

Fortunately for the self-employed taxi driver, all that was taken was two chargers and some change, but he had to pay £100 to have the glass fixed.

On the same night that he was hit, friends and relatives also had their taxis broken into in the same area.

Last Monday, September 11, vehicles were targeted in the Daubill area, including Deane Church Lane.

Mr Akhtar said that taxis were then targeted in Great Lever on Tuesday this week.

One of the incidents was caught on CCTV and showed two men carrying out the break-in, smashing the pane.

Mr Akhtar said: “It has been going on for about eight or nine days. It is not that they have taken things, it is the expense. On the CCTV it looks like these guys aren’t scared at all. Cars are going past and they are just sat there.”

A member of staff at Metro also confirmed that some of their vehicles had been hit by the thieves over the past few weeks.

She said that while there were two or three that she knew of, more incidents may have occurred on different shifts.

She said: “I do not know the full extent of the vehicles we have had broken into.

“They are breaking the small window above the wing mirror on the driver side door. We have had three or four. I know two of them were in the Deane area. It is a real pain.”

Mr Akhtar urged people not to leave any valuables in their vehicles as he looked to raise awareness of what had happened to him and other taxi drivers.

We have tried to contact police about the incidents.