AN online retailer has been cleaned out in a £20,000 raid of his stock.

Matthew Gribben, 27, of Rising Bridge, has been running waxdaddy.co.uk out of a retail unit in Victoria Mill, Accrington, for the past four months.

But now a break-in has seen all of his stock of car care products stolen.

He fears the raid could put him out of business.

He discovered that hundreds of bottles of car cleaning material including specialist wax, polish and valeting products had been stolen, with hundreds more placed in the boot of his car inside the unit.

Mr Gribben said it appeared as though the intruders, who struck late on Monday, had planned to return.

He said: “This has killed the business. For the immediate future, we’ve shut down.

"There’s nothing we can do because almost all of our stock has gone.

“I’m just in utter shock. I rolled up the shutters to see everything gone.”

Mr Gribben said the gates to the mill were locked, as was the access to the building and to individual units.

Other units had items such as DJ equipment and welding tools stolen.

Mr Gribben has now put a notice on his website saying: “Sorry, Wax Daddy warehouse stock stolen.

A police spokesman appealed for any witnesses or anyone with information about the burglary to contact police on 0845 1253545 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.