Charity shops' donations looted

The problem is getting worse shop bosses have warned - with reports of thieves turning up in a van to loot goods from the street.

Lynda Harker, manager of Help the Aged in Station Road, said: "People are rooting through bags left outside the shop, usually over the weekend. Other customers have been seeing it happen."

She said the shops have been encouraging people to leave their donations during opening hours only.

But many items including clothes and books are still being dropped off in the evening or at weekends, despite the fact that many of the shops are open seven days a week.

Anne Coogan, manager of Cancer Research UK, also in Station Road, said this is making the problem worse.

She said: "Many items are donated through the evening and staff have found people stealing."

Jenny Devlin, manager of the Shaw Trust in Maxwell Road, said: "It's been going on as long as I've known - I've been here for ten years - but in the last year it's worse than ever.

"The other day when I came past the shop there were ten bags, I thought I would put them in the shop when I came back, but when I got back there were none."

She said that customers had reported seeing people in vans driving up to the shop and taking bags.

"I think they're appalling. There's no words to describe them."

Oxfam in Station Road and Iain Rennie Hospice at Home in the Arcade, Maxwell Road said they had also experienced similar problems.

Bucks Free Press graphic artist Louise March from Wooburn Green spotted the thieves as she was driving through Beaconsfield on Sunday evening.

She said: said: "I saw people ransacking the donations that had been left outside Oxfam. A burly man kept watch with his boot open. I was horrified and saddened.

"They were as bold as brass bundling the clothes and bric-a-brac into the back of their car. They were like foxes ransacking dustbin bags taking what they wanted and leaving the rest strewn on the pavement."