A gang stole around £3 MILLION of engines from Jaguar Land Rover’ s Solihull plant after brazenly passing through security, sources have claimed.

Criminals used a suspected stolen HGV lorry in the audacious heist at the Lode Lane site on Tuesday night - which took place in full view of security cameras.

Police are now hunting the gang who returned to the scene of the crime to steal more engines with the 40-tonne truck, which was unloaded in the Coventry area.

JLR has posted a reward to catch the crooks who stole engines initially understood to be worth around £3 million.

Land Rover plant in Solihull

One source said: “How they got the lorry in and out so quickly is quite some story.

“We heard the lorry came in at 10.30pm on Tuesday through gates at D1 then drove to the Lagoons depot.

“We were told a trailer was attached and was full of new engines. That lorry was in and out of the plant in six minutes."

They added: “Later that night the same lorry came back and did it all over again. It attached another wagon and then it drove out past the security guards and that wagon was not seen again all night.

“But we have heard that the driver had the yellow documents he needed so he could show the security guards on the way out, without having to be searched.

“He could already of had them on him when he entered the plant, or perhaps he got them when in there.

“The engines that are gone are dealt with by Land Rover employees, they are usually stored in a building. The ones that have ben taken were already in trailers. Either they were due to go somewhere or were due to be moved somewhere on site.”

The production line at JLR in Solihull
The production line at JLR in Solihull

The source also said the value of the engines could be more than £3 million.

They said: “We are told the total value was closer to £5 million. If that is true, then the wagons must have been full. About 40 engines can fit in a wagon.

“The heist had been kept under wraps. We believe that only senior security staff and management have known about it, they are shocked at how it has happened.

“The company pulled in all the managers to a meeting to find out what had gone wrong. The ordinary workers probably knew nothing about it.

“The site is clearly not as secure as it should be.”

Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover

Insiders say the stolen lorry arrived at the Lode Lane depot at 10.30pm on Tuesday and entered through the security-manned D1 gate.

The HGV then drove to the Lagoons depot and hooked up to a trailer containing the car engines, before driving out. The crime took just six minutes, say sources.

A source said: “It is a massive thing for the company. They have never lost this quantity of stock of this value before and they have their own security people as well as paying a security company, Mitie, to watch over site as well.

“We don’t think they have ever had anything this big or expensive taken.

“We heard something massive had happened and it was not the little stuff, but the big stuff that had gone.”

West Midlands Police said it was appealing for information to the engines thefy.

A statement said: “It is believed the engines were stolen from the Damson Lane site in Tile Hill sometime between late night Tuesday 31 January and the early hours of Wednesday 1 February.

“An articulated truck is believed to have entered the site twice, each time hooking up to trailers carrying the engines and then leaving again through the gate.

“The empty stolen trailers have since been located.

“Any information on the whereabouts of the engines or those involved in the thefts should be reported to Solihull police. “