Family speaks out after youths allegedly steal five vehicles from Cairns Cars and 4WD, Bungalow

A Cairns family have been left devastated after a group of youths allegedly broke into their car dealership business, stole five cars and caused up to $100,000 in damages.

Three teenagers have been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle following an alleged break and enter into a Hannam Street business in Bungalow on Monday night. Picture: Facebook

A Cairns family business has estimated upwards of $100,000 in damages after a group of youths allegedly broke into their car yard and stole five cars.

Police allege a group of youths forced entry into Cairns Cars and 4WD in Bungalow on April 21, before stealing car keys from an office area.

The youths allegedly fled in various directions in five stolen vehicles, including a black Hyundai Veloster, a silver Renault Koleos and a blue Toyota C-HR.

Lashae Harding, whose parents opened the dealership in 2009, said she was shocked at the brazen theft.

Siblings Lashae and Hayden Harding, whose parents own the Bungalow car dealership, were shocked to find five cars allegedly stolen from the family business earlier this week. Picture: Catherine Duffy

“From what we know after looking through the footage, the two main boys have somehow gotten into the office around 1.30am and used some sort of tool to get the door open and rip it off the hinge,” Ms Harding said.

From there, the teens looked around the car yard before allegedly stealing tools from a nearby business, which they used to allegedly break into a safe containing car keys.

“From there, you see them scoping around the car yard, unlocking multiple vehicles, then they’ve gotten into one of our brand new, demo, Mahindra vehicles and driven through the chain at the front of the car yard … and taken off with another vehicle,” she said.

Three teenagers have been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle following an alleged break and enter into a Bungalow car dealership on April 21. Picture: Supplied

About 2.20am, Ms Harding said the youths returned with more teenagers and allegedly stole three more vehicles, including a Mitsubishi Pajero, Hyundai Veloster and a Toyota CHR, which had already been sold.

“It was meant to be delivered (on Tuesday),” she said.

“They also took the Renault from the front line … and in the video you can see them doing burnouts just outside the business after taking off with the cars.”

Cairns Cars and 4WD sales manager Tom McGarrie and siblings Lashae and Hayden Harding, whose parents own the Bungalow car dealership, were shocked to find five cars allegedly stolen from the family business earlier this week. Picture: Catherine Duffy

Ms Harding said a Cleanaway truck driver saw the incident while doing his rounds and alerted a security company, which in turn notified police.

“The police went to my parents’ place and told my nan, who’s staying there, and she contacted my brother and I from there,” she said.

“My parents are devastated. They’ve gone on a holiday to relax and we had to call them to say this has happened.”

Ms Harding said it was hard to estimate the financial cost, including car and building repairs.

“We have insurance assessors going around, (the cars) have been examined by police, but all up it’s well over $100k in cars they’ve taken and damages,” she said.

Three teenagers have been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle following an alleged break and enter into a Bungalow car dealership on April 21. Picture: Supplied

“We’re dealing with repairs and discovered six other cars have keys missing, so we’ve had to disconnect batteries to make sure they can’t be accessed or taken, and had to have new keys cut for them, and replace the door.”

She said a security guard was hired for Tuesday night to prevent potential further attacks on the business.

“The boys in the shop are so devastated. There’s so much loss we’ve got to make up for now,” she said.

Police were able to recover four of the five stolen vehicles.

A 15-year-old Manunda boy, a 16-year-old Kanimbla boy and a 14-year-old Manunda boy were all charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

The trio was refused police bail and appeared in the Cairns Childrens Court on April 22.

Police investigations are continuing.

Originally published as Family speaks out after youths allegedly steal five vehicles from Cairns Cars and 4WD, Bungalow