BURGLARS staged a Mission Impossible-style raid at a York industrial estate.

Four men cut telephone lines to immobilise the burglar alarm at the Plumb Centre in James Street just after midnight on Sunday morning.

The men then left the area and lay in wait, while a member of staff from the Plumb Centre turned up to check the apparent malfunction on the alarm.

Finding the premises were still locked up and secure with nothing untoward inside the building, he left.

However, the burglars then returned at 2am, and began an untidy search of both the ground and first floors.

As a final insult, they loaded up one of the company's own lorries with boxes of copper fixtures and various lengths of copper piping.

Police have described the size of the thieves' haul as "substantial".

Having reviewed security footage from the store the police know the raiders, whose faces were hidden by hooded tops, lifted a British Telecom manhole cover in the car park before cutting the telephone lines.

The CCTV system captured the lorry being driven away at 5.15am. The lorry was found abandoned yesterday morning at Flass Lane, in Castleford, West Yorkshire.

Yesterday scenes of crime officers made an extensive search of the building and grounds searching for clues.

PC Richard Farrar, of the York Safer Neighbourhood Response Team, said it was a professional job.

He said: "There is no doubt this was a highly-organised burglary, carried out by a team of criminals who knew exactly what they were doing.

"Despite it occurring in the early hours of Sunday morning in a commercial sector of the city, I am hopeful that people will come forward if they remember seeing any suspicious activity in and around the area at the time.

"Also, the suspects must have arrived at the location in another vehicle, perhaps parking on a nearby road or street.

"Again, if you have information that could help the investigation then please contact the police immediately or call Crimestoppers anonymously."

Witnesses should phone York Police on 0845 6060247 and leave a message for the attention of PC 405 Richard Farrar. The number for Crimestoppers is 0800 555 111.

Alan Crampton, the branch manager at the James Street Plumb Centre, said the thieves had stolen a lorry capable of carrying three-and-a-half tonnes of goods.

He assumed the thieves loaded it close to its limit, although he did not yet know the value of the stock taken. He also guessed that the stolen copper would be sold for scrap, as all the cardboard boxes which the equipment was stored in had been discarded.

According to www.metalprices.com, scrap copper currently sells for £3,590 per tonne.

Changes are now being made to the security systems at the branch to ensure a burglary like this doesn't happen again.

In addition, watchmen are being employed until the security systems are beefed up.

Mr Crampton said: "These things happen and it's the state that we live in.

"We live in times when unfortunately these things happen, but I hope they were smiling when we got them on the CCTV footage."