A FRUSTRATED shop owner has criticised vandals after his shop was targeted causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

Anthony Bond

A FRUSTRATED shop owner has criticised vandals after his shop was targeted causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

Richard Read, who owns Global Trading in Woodbridge, has been beleaguered by yobs on numerous occasions in the past year.

The latest incident left pots and plants damaged outside the interior design shop on Quay Street which will cost almost £1,000 to fix.

He is now calling for more to be done to stop vandals running riot.

“I have been in retail a long time and it is beginning to grate,” admitted Mr Read, who owns the shop with his wife Nicky. “It will cost a lot of money to put this right and it does make you disillusioned with trying to make the shop look good.”

Earlier in the year an off-duty policeman caught a 12-year-old boy throwing apples and stones into the shop during opening hours.

Mr and Mrs Read decided to give the family a chance to apologise and pay for the damage but they refused so the couple decided to prosecute.

But two weeks later the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had dropped the case.

“It makes you very frustrated,” said Mr Read. “What is annoying is that we are told that criminal figures are coming down but they will be if the CPS decide not to prosecute.

“We know lots of people that this has happened to where the CPS has not taken action.

“I do think things are getting worse. If you look at what has happened to us over the last year you would not have gotten this situation before.

“Unless we follow something through they are tomorrow's criminals because they keep getting away with it. It has got to be stopped. You cannot just have feral kids running around.”