THIEVES RAID BLIND HOME

CALLOUS BURGLARS BROKE INTO PROPERTY FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED AND STOLE COMPUTER EQUIPMENT WORTH THOUSANDS OF POUNDS

THIEVES callously broke into a home housing visually impaired people and stole laptop equipment worth thousands of pounds.

The alleged burglary took place in the early hours of yesterday in Cardiff, where entry was gained into a property in Jasmine Drive, St Mellons.

The house belongs to an organisation called the VIP (Visually Impaired People) Lounge, a not-for-profit organisation manned by volunteers.

It offers support for people with visual impairment who live independently, as well as their families and carers. It also offers advice with social service, benefits, hospital or local authority matters.

Ian Francis, who founded the VIP Lounge in 2013, said: “I really hope (the burglars) haven’t targeted visually impaired people because they are an easy target for this.

“It’s bad enough if this is an ordinary burglary but by taking a few laptops they have impacted people’s lives.”

When one of the residents let their guide dog out yesterday, they noticed the patio door had been left open.

Ian said: “It was locked but the burglars must have left it open when they left the house. I don’t know how they did it because I couldn’t see any kind of damage on the door.”

In total, two laptops were taken, which are estimated to be worth between £500-£600 each. Specialised software had been downloaded onto the machines, which cost £2,000 alone.

Ian added: “The guys can’t see the computers but it recognises speech so they can talk to them. They also have magnification software and special radio software.”

As well as providing a service to visually impaired people, the VIP Lounge also runs a number of radio stations presented by its residents for other people with visual impairments.

The incident has now impacted the radio shows’ 34,000 listeners worldwide.

Ian said: “They are all feeling devastated. It’s left one of our residents not wanting to go back into the house because she is worried the burglars will come back. It’s knocked her confidence right back.

“Regarding the radio station, a lot of listeners have learning difficulties and not having presenters and shows on at certain times is going to cause problems for them.”

A spokesman for South Wales Police confirmed they were investigating the incident.