CALLOUS thieves who stole a man’s treasured Land Rover containing his mobile phone sent a string of upsetting texts to his family.

One of the messages said he was planning to kill himself and another told them he had been in a car accident.

Self-employed builder Dan Davis, 31, had left the K-reg diesel Land Rover 90 Defender, which he spent months restoring, outside his home on the main road through Llantysilio, near Llangollen, on Sunday afternoon.

He believes it was stolen between 1.30pm and 4pm, with thieves smashing their way into the locked vehicle.

The mobile phone he uses for work was inside the vehicle and shortly afterwards a text message was sent to his mother, Annie Davis, whose number was filed in the memory under ‘Mum’.

It said: “Fed up with life going to kill myself.”

A few minutes later another text came through saying: “Been in a car crash sorry mum.”

Later in the afternoon Dan’s sister, Ruth Kelshaw, received a text which said: “Have burnt it”, referring to the stolen vehicle.

Dan said: “It’s pretty disgusting behaviour to send messages like this to your family after having stolen your vehicle.

“I know my mum, who was out to lunch with my dad, Dave, at the time the message came through, was very upset when she thought it had come from me.

“Luckily, I have another mobile phone and they eventually got through to me and found out I was perfectly okay and was sitting at home.

“What is worrying is that Ruth wasn’t down in my contacts as my sister, so whoever sent the message to her must have known she was related to me.”

He added: “I spent months rebuilding the Land Rover, putting in all kinds of new equipment, as I planned to take it on a trip to South Africa with some friends next year. Now I don’t know if that will happen.

“It’s red with large tyres and is quite distinctive. I’ve had it for about seven years and everyone around here knows it’s mine.

“In fact, just after it was a stolen a friend of mine told me they had seen it being driven through Llantysilio and, later, someone else said they had spotted it being driven towards Wrexham on the A483.”

Ruth said: “When my mum and dad got the text message from Dan’s phone they both freaked out a bit and were very worried.

“I was also very upset when I got the text sent to me and was glad to get in touch with Dan and find out he was alright.”

The theft has been reported to North Wales Police.