TAMWORTH'S next mayor has offered a £500 reward for information leading to a conviction after her new car was vandalised and items were stolen.

A Vauxhall Zafira belonging to deputy mayor Councillor Tina Clements had its passenger door window smashed, surrounding metal work damaged and her sat-nav and MP3 equipment stolen.

Thieves struck between 7.30pm on Tuesday, January 31, and 11am on Wednesday, February 1, at a driveway in Tinkers Green Road in Wilnecote.

"It just left me feeling so angry," said the Wilnecote ward councillor.

"I've left cars on my neighbour's drive without any problems for three years, and now this.

"They have used a screwdriver, or something similar, to jemmy open the door and damaged all the metal work.

"Maybe it's because the car has a private plate that it was targeted, but the alarm was going off.

"Someone must have heard or seen something, do people not bother when car alarms go off now?"

Councillor Clements's car was one of three vehicles in Wilnecote targeted by thieves.

A sat-nav was stolen from a car parked in Goldcrest on Monday, January 30, and a laptop was stolen from a vehicle on Merganser on Friday, February 3.

Sergeant Martin Jobburns, of Tamworth police, issued a warning to motorists.

He said: "We had a number of similar incidents reported where cars were broken into and possessions stolen.

"We have run Operation Habit where we wrote letters to owners of vehicles where possessions had been left on display.

"We advise everyone to remove these items from view, and the brackets for sat-navs as often these are left in gloveboxes so thieves will still strike the vehicle."

Anyone with any information on the crimes should call Tamworth Police on 101 or CrimeStoppers, which is free and anonymous, on 0800 555111.