A FORMER Winter Olympian has had two high-speed racing toboggans stolen.

They were taken from outside the home of millionaire retired businessman Keith Schellenberg, in Richmond, North Yorkshire, on Saturday night.

Mr Schellenberg was a member of the 1956 British Winter Olympic bobsleigh team and the 1964 Winter Olympic toboggan team.

"It was a bit of a shock to find them gone," said the 75-year-old, who still enjoys taking part in winter sports and helps run bobsleigh training courses in Europe.

"But I was lucky they did not take the toboggans I used in the Olympics."

Mr Schellenberg has warned the thieves to be careful if they decide to use the stolen equipment.

He said: "In 1964, I was the only member of the British team to finish the course -one man ended up in hospital and the other in the mortuary.

"Let that be a lesson to these people.

"They are also very difficult to disguise and can easily be spotted if used."

Middlesbrough-born Mr Schellenberg was previously in the news after he upset residents on the small Scottish island of Eigg.

Mr Schellenberg, who owned the Newsham garage group in Middlesbrough until 1987, when he sold it for £2m, bought the Hebridean island in 1975.

But the islanders were unhappy with the arrangement and, in 1994, launched a public appeal for money to take ownership from the absentee landlord.

Relations turned particularly sour when a mystery fire in a corrugated iron shed destroyed the millionaire's prized 1929 Rolls-Royce.

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call police on (0845) 6060247.