A small business owner who lost thousands of pounds worth of goods when parcels were dumped in a field is considering legal action against delivery company Evri.

Andy Praill, who owns Tradeforce in Canterbury Road, Margate, says 40 orders sent out to customers disappeared when the mountain of packages was discovered in a wooded area in Chatham.

Evri launched an investigation into the incident, and a man was later arrested by police on suspicion of theft.

But Mr Praill says the loss of money and lack of response from the company has left his small aerial and satellite shop struggling to pick up the pieces.

“They said people would be contacted about it, but they’re nowhere to be seen," he said.

“So while we’re scrambling around trying to run a business, we’re having to wait for hours on end to try to talk to a real human rather than a recorded message at Evri.

“It’s just the principle of it all. The least they could do is actively get in touch to put things right.”

The business owner says he has been using Evri - formerly known as Hermes - for the past three years, and has never had any issues.

But he says he only found out where the missing parcels could be through social media.

“A friend of mine sent me the KentOnline article about the dumped parcels in Medway, and suddenly it all made sense,” he explained.

“Around the same time the parcels were dumped in Medway, we had lots of customers naturally saying that they hadn’t received parcels as expected.

“It really leaves a sour taste, especially after we’ve spent three years singing the praises of Evri.”

Mr Praill, who has run the business with wife Aiste for 15 years, says some of the parcels - which included sonar speakers - were worth hundreds of pounds.

But he admits the firm does not insure outgoing goods as there is little cost benefit.

"To lose 40 parcels in one hit, weeks before Christmas, is unprecedented and it's a real kick in the nuts..."

“When we look to insure the items we send out, it generally costs 5% of the item's value," he said.

“It means if we were to lose one in 20 parcels it would be worth the cost, but you don’t expect to lose that many parcels.

“Ordinarily, you do lose one or two and you take it on the chin, that’s life.

“But to lose 40 parcels in one hit, weeks before Christmas, is unprecedented and it's a real kick in the nuts.”

Mr Praill is now considering taking legal action against the delivery firm to recoup his losses, which he says run into a four-figure sum.

“If Evri were to come out and apologise to us directly and actually try to amend things, we’d happily stay with them.” he said.

“Regardless of what we could or should have done, we trusted them with our parcels..."

“But right now, we’re not at that point, so we are looking into legal action against Evri.

“Regardless of what we could or should have done, we trusted them with our parcels.

“For our customers' parcels to be dumped in a field in Medway without so much as a peep from the offending company really isn’t them fulfilling their side of the deal.”

Evri did not respond to requests for comments.

The man arrested in connection with the incident, who is from Chatham, has been released on bail until March 6.