A 12-YEAR-OLD boy has been left devastated after thieves stole his prized motocross bike.

Ellis Gregory was in tears when he found that the £1,000 vehicle, as well as kit that he had spent four years collecting and saving up pocket money for, had gone in one night.

This means that the hobby he loves is impossible for the next few months.

“It’s heartbreaking for him,” said his father, Phil Gregory.

“They have ruined a child’s Christmas. He’s a tough character, but it’s proper hit him.

“To take something from a child is the lowest of the low, it’s horrible.”

Police believe that the thieves are the same gang who stole nearly 150 Christmas trees worth more than £5,000 from garden centres on the same night.

Ellis was staying at his father’s home in Fontley Road, Titchfield, near Fareham, when thieves broke into a van on Mr Gregory’s land and took the red and white Honda CR85 bike and kit kept inside it. A trailer was also taken.

The bike has blue engine hoses, black wheels and red hubcaps and a white number 27 on the front and side.

The kit included two helmets, goggles, body armour and two neck braces, totalling about £600.

Mr Gregory, 49, a builder, said it would have been obvious to those responsible that the bike and kit was for a young person due to the sizes.

Now Ellis and his father must save up all over again.

“The bike means everything because it’s all I want to go on,” said Ellis, of Alexander Grove, Fareham.

“I was really angry. I went to school that morning and didn’t want to talk to anyone.”

The Neville Lovett Community School pupil, who took up the hobby four years ago, practises two to three times a week alongside fortnightly competitions and is a member of Portsmouth Motocross Club.

The incident, in the early morning of Tuesday, November 29, has been linked to the Christmas tree thefts on the same night, where a gang of four broke into the nearby Silver Springs Nursery and Garden Centre in Fontley Road, Titchfield, and Park Place Farm Nursery, in Titchfield Lane, taking a total of 149 trees.

Anyone with information should call PC Sarah Hall on 101, or for those out of the area, call 0845 045 4545.