Thieves strike at shop in final days

THIEVES have been stealing stock from a Gloucester store while it is in its final days of trading.

For the past week signs have been up in New Look telling shoppers that it the store is moving out of the premises in Brunswick Road.

Last week, store bosses confirmed they are closing it leading to disappointment among city shoppers. A 20 per cent discount is available on some products but there is no “everything must go” sale.

But the

Western Daily Press understands that shoplifters have been targeting the store over the past few days.

“A lot of stock has gone, there was a lot of shoplifters here on Saturday,” a member of staff said.

CCTV is being used as part of investigations into the offences that have happened.

A member of Gloucester’s City Protection Officer team said one person was spotted stealing “thousands of pounds worth of stock” from the store.

“They think that because the store is closing down they can get away with it, but that’s not the case,” they said.

Councillor Paul James (Longlevens), leader of the city council said he didn’t know what could happen to the building.

He said: “We’ve just got to wait and see what the owner intentions are for the building. We would hope that they have other plans. We don’t want it to be empty for too long.”

But he was confident the high street is “evolving” adding that “retail still has a place in the city centre”.