THIEVES posing as council workmen ripped up and stole expensive stone flags from a Bolton street in broad daylight.

The gang members even swept up after themselves before loading the flags worth about £1,000 on to a lorry and driving away.

Today council officials confirmed police were investigating the theft in Ena Street, Burnden.

It is one of the first of its kind to be committed in the town during the day.

A council spokesman said: "This is a problem that we, along with other councils, are facing. They stole them in broad daylight. They have been very hard-faced about it. People living there thought they were from the council because they looked so official."

More than 30 square metres of paving was removed by the gang, who all wore yellow bibs as they posed as council workers.

Employees

The street is not in a conservation area so the council has replaced the missing flags with tarmacadam.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "They all had their workmen's coats on and had taped off the area. They looked so official we didn't think anything of it.

"It was only after they had left it for a few days that we realised what had happened and someone spoke to the council ."

The latest theft of York stone paving is just one of a string of similar offences committed around the borough in the last year.

In November town hall bosses set up a hot-line for the public to report thieves.

It followed the theft of paving stones from the Chorley Street and St George's Road areas.

Chief Insp Alan Greene, of Bolton Central police station, today confirmed the theft was under investigation.

He added: "This type of crime tends to be committed by travelling gangs who work across the region. We will be looking for similar offences to compare to this incident."