A COACH driver has called for more CCTV cameras to be installed at Lodmoor Country Park car park after hundreds of pounds' worth of diesel was siphoned from his vehicle in an overnight theft.

Steve Brown, a coach driver from Chesire, regularly brings tourists to Weymouth and Portland on Group Travel Limited coach tours, but says the theft of diesel from his coach has left him reluctant to visit the borough again.

He said: “It costs £12 a day to park at this car park and there are approximately 30 coaches a night parking here.

“That’s an awful lot of money the borough council takes in in terms of revenue and therefore I would expect there to be adequate security measures here.”

Steve, who was in the borough during an eight-day coach tour, said his tour van was targeted on one evening last month.

He said: “I only realised the fuel had been taken when I got behind the wheel one morning and discovered the fuel was on red.

“I knew I’d filled up the day before so at that point alarm bells started ringing in my head.

“During this same timeframe a woman, who parked her coach next to ours, had her car broken into and she told me she had money and a satnav taken from it.

“I’m just concerned this will happen again without better security measures in the area; this time it has only been fuel stolen but next time could be much worse.

“I doubt I will be visiting this car park again and I’ve been bringing people to Weymouth on tours for six years now.”

A spokesman for Dorset Police said the force were alerted to the theft of a "large quantity of diesel" from a coach parked at the Lodmoor Country Park car park.

The incident took place between 6pm on Wednesday, July 15 and 6am the following day.

A quantity of cash was also stolen from a different coach on the same evening, police have said.

The cash was stolen from a Brent Thomas Coaches tour vehicle between 11pm on July 15 and 10am the following day.

The car park at Lodmoor Country Park is operated by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and has 560 standard car parking places.

Cllr Francis Drake, briefholder for community safety at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said: “There is a camera that covers part of the car park at Lodmoor Country Park, but not where the incident took place.”

Anyone with any information on the car park thefts should call Dorset Police on 101 quoting occurrence number 049371 for the diesel theft or 049027 for the cash theft.