An engineer has been left with knee injuries after a thief drove into him while taking his £76,000 Range Rover from outside his home.

The vehicle was then abandoned nearby after it and a getaway car were damaged as they tried to flee the area.

Owner Jim Wenban says he has been left "in a very dark place" mentally following the incident outside his Cliffe property last Wednesday.

The 70-year-old has told how he looked out of his front window around 6pm when he heard the car alarm going off.

There was a man trying to get into the Range Rover SVR while a Vauxhall Corsa blocked his driveway.

The parish councillor rushed outside as the man got into his prized vehicle and reversed into his gatepost, getting lodged against it in the process.

As the dad-of-one approached him, a second man shouted out from nearby: "Get out of the way grandad; we will ******* drive into you."

With that, the Range Rover lunged forward, catching Mr Wenban on the knee as he tried to jump out of the way.

Both cars sped away down Station Road while he called the police before climbing into another vehicle to give chase.

However, just yards away at the junction with Rectory Road, he found the Corsa abandoned after being damaged somehow.

Then a little further along, the Range Rover had also been left badly damaged on a railway bridge.

Mr Wenban believes there were three men at his property who were taken away from the area by another car.

Speaking of the trauma, he said: "I didn't sleep for three days after with all that going on in my head.

"It's left me in a very bad place, to be honest.

"I have lived here for 22 years without any problem, but of late there's been a few things locally which have happened. It's as if there's no law and order anymore."

The engineering firm boss says the police arrived within five minutes and a major search – including the force's helicopter – was launched but no arrest have yet been made.

He also says he's heard his Range Rover – worth £76,000 second hand and £135,000 new – was the fourth such vehicle taken from the area recently.

He estimates from the moment he heard the alarm going off to discovering his damaged vehicle was no more than eight minutes in total.

Kent Police confirmed it was involved in the incident and attempts to find the raiders are ongoing.

Meanwhile, in a possibly related discovery, officers were called to a premises in Royal Eagle Close, Medway City Estate at 4am on Tuesday.

They found car parts, suspected to be from stolen vehicles including Range Rovers.

Chris Webb, who owns one of the adjoining yards, received a call from his night watchman at 4.30am to say the area was full of police.

He said: "They found carcasses of Range Rovers. I think they must have been tracking something and followed it in here. They opened the container up and it was full.

"I got here at around 5.30am and there was one gaffer sitting here in a cop car."

He also said that this has happened five or six time over the past few years.

Anyone with information should call 01634 792209 quoting reference 08-0121.