Sacked for stealing my OWN equipment back

I've created an account on here as I am a bit bewildered over my recent sacking so need to know where I stand - So I work (or used to) for a small family run business and about 8 months ago I let the boss man borrow some of my very expensive equipment (a TIG welder and a drill). I didn't need them at the time, I'd been working there for 5 years meaning we'd built up a friendship; so why not?

Anyway, I recently came to needing to use them and I remembered that the boss man still had them. I kindly asked for them back and he told me that he never borrowed anything off me and he "Suggests I look elsewhere" :think:

I spent a few days thinking about it, could someone else have borrowed them and I've simply forgotten? Could he have given them back and I simply don't remember where I put them? He almost had me thinking that I'd simply misplaced them! No, I couldn't have! I knew he had them so I basically snooped around and found both my drill and welder, covered in dust at the back of a cupboard! The best thing is, due to the cost of them, I'd made sure to have my postcode and phone number engraved onto them to make them harder to sell should they be stolen! (The TIG welder is worth £3K!)

The boss man caught me and immediately gave me a verbal warning and again insisted that the items I found were his and he's had them years. When I questioned the engraving on them, he just snapped "THAT'S ENOUGH, GET BACK TO WORK"

I then spent the next few days looking for my old phone which was somewhere at home, I could have sworn he asked to borrow them via a text message .... BINGO! I had the date and what he wanted to borrow and he even put his name at the end of the text. Took it into work and showed him and before I could even argue this he told me that this is my "final verbal warning to drop this"

Sorry, but I'm not having this - £3000+ worth of my property and he thinks he can just steal it? I have the receipts for both the welder and the drill, I have the receipts for the engraving I had done on them, I have the text message from him... What else do I have to do to prove they are mine?

So, next time he was off site, I went to the cupboard and took back what was rightfully mine! I go into work the next day and I can only assume he either checked if they were still there or one of the other six employees snitched on me (people are going to notice me walking around dragging a welder on wheels behind me!) I was immediately dismissed for gross misconduct and was also told he is "mulling over" getting the Police involved. When I informed him that stealing my own stuff is not against the law he basically told me "No, but trespassing is, remove yourself from the building"

Does anyone know where I stand with this? Yes the items are mine but at the same time so it's not like I stole them, but what about when removing things from his property? I did try to tell him on multiple occasions that the equipment was mine but he wouldn't listen - I even showed him numerous forms of proof but he just shrugged me off - Wouldn't that be classed as him stealing? Do I have any legal rights such as unfair dismissal?

To be totally honest I'm not bothered about going back there, I don't want to work for such a deceitful person. But obviously I'm going to need a reference and obviously I'm not sure if the Police can do something against me yet? (Plus do I want to risk asking the potential snitch for a reference instead of the boss?!?)