Fighting back against crime

A convenience retailer in Greater Manchester has shown that criminals will not get the better of his business after his Sale shop was the victim of ram raiders at the weekend.

Hemant Patel, known as H, operates several Nisa stores in the Manchester area, and was determined to minimise disruption to his Manor Avenue customers after the attack on his ATM machine that happened in the early hours of Saturday 14th September.

Plant machinery was used to remove the cash machine from the wall of the shop, leaving a gaping hole in the corner of the building.

But despite the damage caused, the store was made safe and initial repairs completed within hours enabling the shop to start trading again.

H said: “The ATM room was destroyed and internally the shop wall had shifted, and it had made quite a lot of mess. But as soon as the police released the shop back to us, I got my team in and they cleared it, made it structurally safe and the builders went straight to work.

“I lost trading from 7am to 1pm on Saturday but that’s all and by the end of the day the inner skin of the building had been re-built.”

H said he was delighted with the speed at which he was able to get the business back up and running and hoped it sent out a reassuring message to other independent retailers.

“When adversity like this happens, you can’t mope about it or worry too much, you just need to act fast, have a plan and you can be up and running very quickly if you have the right people around you.

“There are risks in this business, but you need to be prepared and ready to act so that if it does happen to you, you can limit the impact it has on business.”

A man was arrested following the incident and taken into custody by Greater Manchester Police.