Jeweller’s raided twice in a week

A FAMILY business in Newark says the town isn’t a nice place to be after it was burgled twice in the space of just one week.

City Goldsmiths, an independent jewellers based in Middle Gate, had only reopened its doors in June after the coronavirus lockdown.

But then, the shop was the target of a raid on Wednesday, September

23, where a window was smashed and around 40 gold earrings are thought to have been stolen.

Staff had only just started clearing the mess and trying to return to normal when, one week later, the shop was burgled again.

A member of staff at the shop, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “It’s just so disappointing.

“It’s a family business – we’ve been in the town for more than 40 years and we had just reopened again.

“We are making some improvements to our security, but there is only so much money you can throw at it. We just have to try and do what we can.”

In the second burglary, a front window was smashed, as well as a glass cabinet containing a range of jewellery inside the shop.

The staff member continued: “It was so nice after reopening, we had some of our regular customers coming back in, so for this to happen is so frustrating.

“Newark is just not a nice place to be at the moment. It used to be, but not any more.”

Police say they have had reports of a number of break-ins and anti-social behaviour around the town centre in recent weeks.

Inspector Heather Sutton said: “There’s been a number of break-ins in Newark Town Centre over the last couple of weeks at commercial properties.

“A lot of the local businesses are really struggling financially due to the coronavirus impact, and then to have a commercial break-in on top of that is extremely damaging.”

She added: “Our patrols are in the Market Place and around the town centre to try and catch those responsible. Where we’ve had calls where an alarm has gone off, we’ve been there within minutes.

“So if anybody sees anything suspicious, please call 999 and we will deploy straight away.”