By Ed Thomas THE Marylebone offices of one of Britain s top bands have been raided by thieves during a weekend of break-ins. The production company for three-piece group Keane was targeted on Saturday night and thousands of pounds of high-tech equipment t

By Ed Thomas

THE Marylebone offices of one of Britain's top bands have been raided by thieves during a weekend of break-ins.

The production company for three-piece group Keane was targeted on Saturday night and thousands of pounds of high-tech equipment taken.

Sensitive documents are also feared to be missing, sparking security alerts for the successful pop trio who are currently on tour in the States.

Thieves broke into the offices in Great Castle Street, near Oxford Circus, sometime between 9pm on Saturday (January 20) and Monday morning when the incident was reported.

Laptop and desktop computers as well as music production equipment were taken and more seriously, phone numbers and addresses stored on the computers relating to members of the band which could now fall into the wrong hands.

Just around the corner on Great Titchfield Street, thieves also broke into another production company and stole similar items.

Police are appealing for information to track down the burglars.

"The Priority Crime Unit at Marylebone is investigating these two offences which took place near to each other," said a spokeswoman for the police.

"We believe they may be linked. So far, no arrests have been made."

Keane sprang to fame in 2003 with their piano-driven anthems such as Everybody's Changing, Bedshaped, Somewhere Only We Know and This Is The Last Time.

Members Tom Chaplin, Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes are now worldwide superstars after their debut album Hopes and Fears sold more than 5million copies earning them two Brit awards.

Earlier this week the band had to put the problems of the break-in behind them to record an acoustic set for Virgin Radio. They then jetted to the States to perform live in Los Angeles tonight and San Francisco tomorrow and will be back in London next month to play at Wembley.

Superintendent Jon Morgan of Marylebone Police said the specialist Priority Crime Unit deals with non-residential burglary because the area's high concentration of office and retail space can attract thieves.

"In the area of Marylebone towards the West End we have fewer residents and therefore less residential burglary. We do tend to have more break-ins at business premises," he said.

"Over the past year we have reduced non-residential burglary by 23 per cent or 131 fewer crimes.

"But we have still experienced 448 crimes of this type, which means one or two every day.

"We are fairly lucky given the large number of business premises we have in the area.

"But it is still a major priority as non-residential burglary can strike at the viability of a business. We are taking the issue very seriously."

Any witnesses should call 020-7321 9445.