Police wish to interview four men in connection with a break-in at the premises of a Dartington-based charity specialising in work-retraining schemes for prison offenders.

The incident happened on September 20 at about 1.45am in a shed at Landworks, a charity that has helped to retrain hundreds of offenders and those facing community sentences over the last decade.

Charity founder Chris Parsons revealed details of the burglary on his blog, saying he raised the alert after finding a shed door hanging off from its hinges.

Three hedge strimmers, as well as 16 batteries and an undisclosed number of chainsaws, worth about £5,800 in total, were stolen.

Commenting on his blog, a shocked Mr Parsons said: “We are rebuilding and restocking slowly, but the real damage was to all of us. We were all victims.

“As you can imagine, sometimes keeping a balanced view here is difficult, especially among our cohort of placements. Some of whom hated this experience, feeling (unduly) that they were under scrutiny.

Police later released photos taken from CCTV footage of four men they wish to interview.

Anyone with information that may also help to identify the men should contact police online (www.devon-cornwall.police.uk) or by calling 101, quoting reference number 50240238657.

The incident coincides with the government’s recently implemented early release scheme, which last month saw 1,700 prisoners who completed 40 per cent of their sentence released from jail. A further 1,100 were released this week across the country.

According to Landworks, the majority of its trainees have gone on to find employment, while only 5.2 per cent have gone on to re-offend, compared to 37.4 per cent of offenders in general.