A Bristol building company owner has accused police of failing to treat thefts of valuable goods from his construction site seriously.

Mike Wintle, 46, said up to £50,000 worth of equipment has been stolen from the Blackhorse Construction site in Whitefield Road, Speedwell, since June in a series of raids.

Equipment taken from the site includes a £25,000 digger and cable worth £3,000, which was taken last Wednesday night.

But Mr Wintle said only a police community support officer had visited the site, which his company was transforming to six flats, to investigate the thefts.

He said: "We have experienced a huge amount of organised crime and I have put a complaint in with my MP Roger Berry.

"We had £3,000 worth of cable stolen just last week and all we got from police was a text message with a crime reference number on it – no one turned up."

Mr White said his company started work on the site in May and equipment began to disappear from June.

He said: "The thieves have been breaking the doors down and breaking through hoardings.

"Whoever took the digger would have needed to get heavy machinery over a fence and a massive lorry to take it away.

"With the latest theft, it was big, heavy supply cable and they would have needed to put it on a truck or a lorry, and it would have taken hours to do.

"It has been a battle with the police – they are just not interested. There are lots of building sites being broken into across Bristol but the police are not taking them seriously."

Mr Wintle said he was insured for some of the thefts but that many were not worth claiming for.

He said: "We couldn't bring in a new replacement digger on to the site because the insurance company wouldn't cover us for it.

"On the one occasion a police officer came to the site it was a police community support officer, and she arrived here on foot after walking all the way from Fishponds police station.

"We have been broken into about 15 times.

"We don't think we can secure the site unless we get a security guard.

"It is organised crime involving heavy machinery but the police priority seems to be not to investigate it.

Wayne Baker, spokesman for Avon and Somerset police, said of the latest incident: "Details were taken from the victim but we didn't send an officer because we have been informed there were no witnesses and no CCTV cameras to seize.

"Building sites are often isolated areas and it is down to the owner to introduce security measures, including CCTV.

"Crime prevention advice is available if requested."