POOLE Stadium staff arrived at work to find the building cordoned off and surrounded by police vehicles on the morning of September 1 following a suspected robbery at the premises.

Police had received a tip-off on Wednesday, August 31 that someone was planning to raid the building, in Wimborne Road, on Wednesday night, and stadium management put in place additional security on site overnight, including plain-clothed police.

Stadium manager Richard Evans said: "A van arrived on site and from there the police arrived. Because they arrived so quickly they didn't see anybody leaving so they had to assume the worst, that there were people inside.

"So they conducted an extensive seven-hour search of the premises before they allowed us back in."

Dorset Police confirmed they received a call at around 4am from the stadium and the entrance to the entire complex was still cordoned off with blue and white tape on September 1 as was the entrance to nearby Poole High School.

Around four marked cars and vans, as well as the dog unit and an armed response team, were also in attendance.

Insp Rob Snowden said: "It was a suspicious incident last night and, because of the possible risk that's attached, we ended up putting in appropriate security measures. There was a suspicious vehicle seized and we conducted an extensive search of the building but nothing was located."

The building was handed back over to stadium management at around 12.50pm and the greyhound racing meet on September 1 was due to go ahead as normal.

Stadium bars manager and keyholder Roy Martin said he had received a call from police at around 7am asking him for details of the layout of the building.

He added: "People were turning up for work as usual because our information office is inside the building so it was hard to contact everybody.

"It caused major disruption because the car park is used by many people who work in the area, especially Poole Hospital and Barclays - it's inconvenienced the whole of the town centre, really."

Insp Snowden said he wanted to thank members of staff for their co-operation, especially those who normally used the stadium car park.

Police are appealing for witnesses and information. Call Dorset Police on 01202 222222 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 in confidence.

First published: September 2, 2005