Anyone offered two, ploished black granite memorials on the cheap, especially if they still carry the inscriptions to Glenys Stewart and Edward Barry Brookes, should inform the police.

The memorials were on the back of a 13-tonne Ford Iveco flatbed lorry with piggy-back fork lift stolen from the premises of memorial wholesalers R Lidster Ltd in Worksop, Nottingham, on 22 October.

The £50,000 lorry was specially adapted to piggy-back the Kooi-aap diesel-powered forklift that was on it when it was stolen. The position of the rear axle of the truck is unusually far back to accommodate the fork lift.

John Richardson, managing director of Lidster, said: The vehicle was unique. It was modified with four-inch square channels at the back for the forklift truck to sit on.

The truck is registered V195 ENU. The frame number is SBCAIGD0002313326. The Kooi-aap registration is Q899 HHL with chassis number 986314. Again, if you are offered the vehicles you should contact the police.

The driver of the lorry said he thought he was being followed by an Astra car as he drove back to the Lidster yard and some youngsters nearby said they had seen an Astra near Lidster\'s yard at about 8pm that night.

Richardson said: For £400 I could have had a tracker fitted to the lorry. I feel like a pillock at the moment.

The stolen lorry was driven out through the locked gates of Lidster\'s premises. Another vehicle, a van, was stolen from other premises on the same estate on the same night.