A KEIGHLEY shop which raises money to help Britain's most vulnerable youngsters is appealing for help to recover after being repeatedly targeted by criminals.

The Children's Society Shop, in Cavendish Street, was burgled by raiders who smashed their way in through the front door, wrenched a safe off the wall, grabbed a collection tin, then fled via a fire exit.

Previously the shop had its large, commercial waste bin deliberately torched three separate times, forcing it to fork out nearly £300 for replacement bin lids.

Responding to the burglary, shop manager Joanne Kane said: "I was just absolutely disgusted.

"It's not as if we take in that much money here. They have no idea of the knock-on effect this has on us.

"We lost £168 which had been in the safe, the safe itself, plus however much was in the collection tin. We've needed to have our front door window pane fixed, then we also lost a full day of Saturday's trading, which is normally our busiest day."

Mrs Kane, who has been manager at the store for six months, said the arson attacks on its waste bin, in Back Cavendish Street, had all occurred within this period, with the latest happening on August 23.

She said each time this happened, the destroyed, melted bin lid cost £97 to replace. "We can't just leave it without a lid, because then they won't collect the rubbish," she said.

The burglary took place either late at night on Friday September 2 or early in the morning on Saturday September 3. The theft and damage was first discovered shortly before 9am on the Saturday.

Mrs Kane said the burglars had seemed to know exactly where to go in the building, as they did not waste time ransacking the shop to hunt for valuables.

She said she and her team of volunteers now need generous donations of items such as clothes, bric-a-brac, books and other saleable goods to help the charity recoup some of its losses.

She paid special tribute to Keighley Market Hall trader and shop volunteer Adam Halliday, who donated new carpeting for the store's volunteers' area after hearing about the burglary.

"I was made up with that," she said. "After everything that's happened it's great to see there are still good people around."

Mr Halliday who owns Adam's Cafe and The Market Pantry, said: "It's awful to see a charity being stolen from. They are an easy target, and whoever has done it is just the lowest of the low."

Mrs Kane said she wanted to see proper security camera coverage of Cavendish Street to try and deter thieves in future.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said the burglary would have occurred some time between 5.30pm on September 2 and 8.45am on September 3.

He asked anyone who may have seen someone acting suspiciously in this location between those times to contact the police on 101 and quote the 13160379744 crime reference number.