A thousand bricks have been stolen from a house under renovation in three separate burglaries.

Shahazad Darr, 39, of Forest Gate, was halfway through the £100,000 project at his house in Balmoral Road, Leyton, when it was repeatedly targeted by thieves over two months.

Following a similar incident when a mother in Wanstead had 100 bricks stolen from her property, Mr Darr lost about 500 of the bricks from an external wall he was constructing, at a cost of £8,500.

Following the first burglary, CCTV cameras used by Leyton Orient Football Club were pointed at the property for a month in an attempt to catch the thieves in the act.

They recorded footage of a hooded man climbing over the border fence of the empty house and passing the 80-year-old bricks on a pallet to an accomplice, who loaded them into an estate car.

The thefts only stopped last month when Mr Darr put scaffolding around the pre-war yellow stock bricks, which can fetch up to £15 each, to pin them down.

He didn't claim insurance as the property was empty at the time of the thefts.

Now Mr Darr, who works as a civil servant, wants to warn others in the area of the threat.

He said: “It is very frustrating, it is costing us £100,000 to do up the house. 

"We are not a big construction company.

"We are a normal working class family who have saved up to do this renovation and pass any rental money down to our children.

“Builders merchants call these bricks ‘cash on the street’. 

"If someone takes just ten and they are sold correctly they can get £150.

“I would advise home owners to get dummy CCTV cameras as a deterrent if they can’t afford the real thing.

“The trouble is the bricks are so distinctive to east London they will definitely be targeted. 

“If there are cracks, gaps or weak points that they can get into with a chisel or even their fingers, they will try.

“It is sickening really and a very personal crime. 

"It is like someone stealing the clothes of your washing line.

“I would care less if my car was stolen because that is on the outside, just a possession. But this house is my comfort zone- these bricks form part of my home.”