West Lothian Crime: Thieves ram-raid Livingston shopping centre before torching car
Enquiries are ongoing.
Police are looking to trace four men after a ‘ram-raid’ at a West Lothian shopping centre which saw several rails of designer clothing stolen.
A black Nissan Juke car and white Audi S5 vehicle approached the east side of The Centre in Livingston around 12.15am on Tuesday.
Four men got out of the vehicles, smashed an external display window at Flannels, and entered briefly but were unable to gain entry to the main store.
Images show a smashed window at the Flannels store, which has been cordoned off with fencing. Police officers and vehicles can also be seen at the scene more than 10 hours later.
It is understood one of the men then re-entered the Nissan Juke and reversed the vehicle through one of the bollards and smashed through both sets of glass doors allowing entry to the shopping centre.
The four culprits then entered one of the shops and grabbed several rails of designer clothing which they place in the Audi vehicle.
Suspects fled the scene
A short time later, police have said, the Nissan vehicle was set alight by one of the suspects who then entered the Audi vehicle along with the other three suspects.
They drove off at speed along the pathway towards the roadway and into Almondvale Road heading east.
Fire crews attended and the Nissan vehicle fire was extinguished but completely burnt out.
The Audi vehicle has since been recovered nearby on the outskirts of Dechmont and stolen property was found within the vehicle. The suspects had fled the scene.
Detective Inspector Lee Beaumont said: “Thankfully, no-one was injured as a result of this incident.
“It was a carefully planned operation in which the four suspects had no thought for the safety of others at anytime.
“The suspects were all wearing dark clothing with their faces covered and were armed with a variety of equipment to enable them to break-into the shopping centre and store within.
“It is vital that we trace the men responsible and I urge anyone who has seen the vehicles hanging around the area or has captured them on CCTV or Dashcam to contact police immediately.”
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Anyone with information should contact police via 101 quoting incident number 0052 of March 17, 2026. Alternatively calls can be made to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where anonymity can be maintained