A CHARITY shop has issued a stark warning to potential shop lifters: Beware, we will prosecute! The Barnardo s shop, in Angel Pavement, Royston, has been the subject of a spate of shoplifting over the last couple of months. And store manager Steve Charl

A CHARITY shop has issued a stark warning to potential shop lifters: 'Beware, we will prosecute!'

The Barnardo's shop, in Angel Pavement, Royston, has been the subject of a spate of shoplifting over the last couple of months.

And store manager Steve Charlesworth says they have now decided to take a hard line against thieves.

He said: "I think it's absolutely disgusting that people feel the need to steal from a charity shop. It's a very low act.

"We want shoplifters to know that if we catch them at it we are going to report them to the police and insist that they are prosecuted. We need to stamp this out."

Mr Charlesworth says the thieves have been coming up with devious ways to take the shop's stock.

He said: "They're putting two items on one hanger, taking them into the changing rooms and putting one of them in their bag.

"Then they come back out with the same amount of hangers, and it's hard to spot that they've taken something."

Staff at the shop have already caught a couple of people taking items which they have not paid for.

But Mr Charlesworth hopes there will not be any more problems in the run-up to Christmas.

"It's a shame because people are donating things to us thinking they are going to a good cause," he said.

"When they are stolen it just destroys the good work we are trying to do.