A HIGH Street store will start smoking out would-be thieves thanks to a clever new piece of kit.

Woolworths in High Wycombe's High Street has been fitted with devices called Fog Bandits' and Smoke Cloaks' which fill the store with the smoke when the alarm has been tripped.

It takes just six seconds for the shop to fill up - the idea being that burglars cannot steal what they cannot see and are forced to leave empty-handed.

Since being fitted, there have been no break-ins at the store - and Woolworths nationwide has noticed a 30 per cent cut in burglaries in stores where the Smoke Cloaks have been fitted.

Woolworths security spokesman Bill Rego said: "Fog bandits and Smoke Cloaks are new to our stores but they are already working better than anything else we have ever employed in the fight against retail crime. We expect it to save over £1 million in the next six months.

"This is money we will pass onto customers in lower prices later this year.

"Previously High Wycombe was a store where we'd had break-ins. Now we expect it to be trouble free."

The technology behind Smoke Cloak is based on the dry-ice smoke effect often used on-stage or in discos, and is harmless to humans. It also leaves the shop and its stock completely undamaged.

It was invented by a man called Paul Dards who got fed up with break-ins at his electrical store in Milton Keynes in the early 1990s.