'Sick' burglars target Legions for Poppy cash

A CLEAN-UP at the Western Royal British Legion was under way yesterday. It had been targeted along with the Northern Legion branch hall, St Peter's Post Office and Barras Car Centre in a series of break-ins and attempted break-ins on Sunday night.

The club committee is determined to carry on as usual while police link all the incidents.

'The outside door was forced, they smashed the glass on the inside door. Then obviously someone took the till. Why they broke the snooker room door I don't know,' said club committee secretary and licensee Dave Ollivier.

'I can't understand it, it's devastating.'

Head steward Terry Guillot was in bed when he got an alert on his phone that the club's alarm system had been activated.

'I got changed, came straight in here and opened the door, stopped the alarm and when I saw the door was smashed I phoned Dave,' said Mr Guillot.

'I rang the police and that was when I noticed the till was gone.'

A glass jar containing bonus ball money was also taken from a shelf above the till behind the bar.

'They can't have any feelings, can they?' he added.

Between 30 and 40 people had been in the club that night following the Remembrance Day commemorations.

'When I checked the alarm system I saw that it was all locked up at 11.07pm and the alarm went at 11.23pm. The head steward was up here at 11.35pm and they had been and gone - it was that quick,' said Mr Ollivier.

Another till and a Poppy Appeal collection tin were left untouched.

Club committee chairman Pat Albin said: 'It just gets you down, doesn't it.

'What sort of feelings are you going to have if you find out who it is and then meet them in the road?'

He suspected the clubs were targeted because it was Remembrance Day and the thieves thought there would be money around.

'You are just gutted, that's basically what it is,' he said.

'But what can you do about it, because they've gone? There are people working to keep this club going; then they come in and start wrecking the place.'

Mr Ollivier said the thieves had no fear, breaking in so soon after the last person had left.

'It's business as usual. We won't let them get us down,' he said.

The amount of cash taken is not known at this stage.

A spokesman for the Royal British Legion Northern branch said that around £250 of damage had been caused to a glazed door.

'It's an expense we don't need and the money spent on these repairs could have been spent on the Poppy Appeal.'

Neighbours alerted police when the alarm went off and they called him out at about 2.30am.

'It was a futile attempt because nothing of value is kept in there,' he added.

'It leaves a feeling of sheer disgust that mindless vandalism is happening all over the island and there's very little that can be done about it.'

He believes the alarm scared off the intruders.

The attempt to break into St Peter's Post Office was unsuccessful but a till with no money in it was stolen from Barras Car Centre.

Police investigations are continuing into all the burglaries.

'We would really just welcome any information,' said DS Terry Coule.

'We're not ruling anything out at this stage and we're treating them as being a series at this stage.'