Shopkeeper's fury after robberies

Thieves made off with around 500 worth of goods from the William Street store, and the store’s owner was almost at breaking point.

“The thieves are depriving me of my living,” she said. “I would just love to get my hands on them.”

She had only opened the store the previous year after having been burnt out of her previous premises in Charles Street. Since then there had been six break-ins, with the fifth coming just one week before the sixth.

An adding machine, cigarettes and tins of salmon were stolen, along with the contents of a stocking for the blind. “They took everything they could get their hands on,” said the shopkeeper.

“It means that I have worked a whole year for nothing. I just get gathered together and away they go again.”