A sweet shop owner has expressed his “sadness” after charity boxes were stolen in the second burglary in less than a year.

Alan Spaven, who runs Spavens Sweet Shop on King Street in Mold with wife Rhian, said they had been left devastated following the burglary on Friday.

Thieves broke in and stole three charity boxes, as well as the tills, a tablet and a crate of soft drinks.

Last year they took the charity boxes, till and sweets from the shop.

Mr Spaven said they would now no longer place charity boxes in their store. He said: “It is the theft of the charity boxes which saddens us most.

”As a small business, we like to support local charities and give something back to the community that supports us.

”It is a sad fact of life that we cannot place a charity box on our shop counter for fear of it being robbed.” 

Mr Spaven, who lives above the shop, said the incident took place sometime in the early hours of the morning.

He said: “I was up watching the General Election when I heard some sort noise at about 1am.

”I didn’t think much of it and it wasn’t until I came down at about 8.30am that I noticed the till was missing and the back door was open.

”We have increased security since our last break-in but now we are increasing it even further.” 

Mr Spaven said the charity boxes taken included a full North-East Wales Mountain Rescue box, a Guide Dogs for the Blind box and a box for cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

He said: “There is a staff member here who is raising money for CLIC Sargent by doing the Three Peaks Challenge, and customers have been putting money in there for her.

“Whoever has done this has got no conscience.

“We are not going to have charity boxes any more because all the thieves are looking for is cash to take, which is sad because we do as much as we can for charity.” 

Mr Spaven added that while the tills did not contain much money, the cost of replacing them was an added frustration.

He said the police had been extremely helpful in working to assist the business.

In September last year, thieves broke into the shop and emptied the tills, but also stole three big pots of football gums, sugared almonds and strawberry sherbets from behind the counter.