BURGLARS tied-up staff at a Swanley publishing firm and stole computers worth £60,000.

Four villains broke into Nexus Media and tied up four employees before taking 28 Apple Mac computers at around 10.30pm, on December 17.

Management at the firm in Azalea Drive said three publishing staff are in a state of shock and the security guard was left slightly injured.

Police believe the stolen hard drives will be sold abroad.

The robbery could be linked to a similar break-in at the publishers 18 months ago where staff were tied up and six computers were taken.

Nexus Facilities Manager George Birleson said the loss of computers will "slow things down" for staff who are busy trying to get Christmas magazines published.

He said: "I got a call around midnight and when I turned up at the building there were half a dozen police officers on site.

"The four members of staff suffered no physical abuse but they are in shock and the security guard has a bruised knee cap.

"We have now made arrangements to get in some new computers but there is no doubt the robbery will affect working on Christmas magazine issues - even though they will still get published."

Detective Inspector Ajoy Gosain, who is investigating the case, says he will not rule out a link between the robbery last week and the break-in 18 months ago.

He said: " We found robbers had broken through a window on the ground floor and tied up four members of staff while they unwired computers and removed 28 hard drives.

"There is no doubt this robbery is similar the one at Nexus 18 months ago but the four suspects were black and in this one two are black and two are white."

Police are looking for two black men and two white men who were caught on CCTV footage leaving the building in a white van. They were wearing hoods and scarves and they had "London" accents.

Call DI Gosain on 01322 283157 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

December 28, 2001 17:00