High street charity shops in Billericay are being plagued by thieves stealing the donations that people leave outside.

The manager of Barnado’s shop on Billericay High Street, Sue Elms, said it’s been happening at her store at least four times a week.

“We get to the shop at 7am in the morning and always expect this,” says Mrs Elms, of Basildon. “They are losing the charity money and it sickens me.”

All that the thieves leave behind is the “rubbish they don’t want”, Mrs Elms said. “All the good stuff is going and the worst stuff is left, and they always leave such a mess behind. I suspect they’re probably selling items on.

“It saddens me as we work so hard and people are kind to donate.

“I don’t know what we can do about it, apart from carry on cleaning up after them.”

Mrs Elms says that because the crime happens so frequently, the charity’s staff don’t bother reporting the thefts to the police anymore.

“One of the other volunteers who lives across the road sees 20 bags left outside on Sunday night,” said one of the shop’s volunteer, Nick Trew, 25, from Stanford-le-Hope. “But when we open up the shop on Monday morning, there are only four bags left.”

Barnado’s staff would rather that donors drop their unwanted items off at the shop during opening hours, and then these can be gift aided. But even then the donations are not safe from thieves, who are operating inside the store too.

Two weeks ago, half a rail of new clothes was stolen whilst two staff members were working on the shop floor. “It doesn’t seem to make any difference,” said Mrs Elms.

A member of staff at the Marie Curie Charity Shop further up the High Street says they are also being targeted by thieves. “Last week, somebody in our changing room kitted themselves out in a complete new outfit, leaving their dirty clothes behind on the floor for us to pick up,” she said. “I think thieves also rummage through donations left outside. We did have a sign up telling people not to leave donations outside, but we were told to take it down.”

At another High Street charity shop, Sense, a member of staff explained that people are often seen rummaging through the bins out the back where unwanted donations are thrown out.

They said: “I’m assuming that new donations are sometimes taken too. People are also wandering into our shop and taking things.”