RAIDERS drove off with a brand new car worth £48,000 after loading it with jewellery and other valuables they had stolen from an Ampfield house.

Police say that the daring burglars went to extraordinary lengths to disable an intruder alarm at the family home along the Straight Mile while the occupants were away on Saturday night.

A police spokesman said: “They propped a child’s garden swing up against the side of the house and then placed a ladder on top of it and climbed up and ripped a burglar alarm off the wall and smashed it up.”

After getting into the house, the gang carried out an untidy search of rooms and found the keys to a black 2013 registration Audi A5 coupe.

Before driving off, they loaded the high powered 2,967cc car with a HP laptop computer worth £690, a Canon Camera valued at £120, an old iPhone worth £50 and a safe containing thousands of pounds worth of jewellery.

The gems included a gold eternity ring with a distinctive yellow square diamond and two white diamonds either side of it and matching earrings along with watches and bracelets.

Police could not put a value on the jewellery stolen, but confirmed that it ran into several thousand pounds.

The safe itself is worth an estimated £700.