Armed blaggers escape with 800MHz PIII chips worth £700K

Armed robbers are still at large after stealing an estimated £700,000 in Pentium chips from a freight forwarding firm in Berkshire last week.

The raid, which netted robbers 12 boxes of 800MHz PIIIs, took place in broad daylight on January 22 at the Windsor warehouse of Kay Express, and follows a number of similar attacks in the M4 corridor recently. Two men armed with a black handgun and a driver in the gang's BMW getaway car are being sought in connection with the blag.

Police are appealing for help from the IT industry - and warning dealers to be careful of buying the 'knocked off' goods.

Detective Inspector Greg Elphick of Thames Valley Police said: "This was a robbery of very high value goods carried out at gun point.

"We want people in the industry to contact us if they are offered any micro-chips for sale within the next few days. This property is likely to be offered for sale within a very short time."

Three weeks ago raiders made off with £150,000 worth of memory chips from Newbury-based distributor Rombyte. In December thieves tried to break into Hungerford chip manufacturer Hypertec.

According to police estimates, in the last 18 months £18 million worth of computer chips have been stolen in the south of England alone. ®

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