A THIEF snuck in through the bathroom window of a flat above a Padiham chip shop before stealing a cash register and mobile phones.

The break-in at Chippy On The Green, Padiham, has left the 70-year-old manager of the shop so traumatised he feels he can no longer run the business and has left the country to return to his native Cyprus.

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The incident comes following several threatening phone calls where alleged racist abuse was also aimed at the Greek family who own and run the chippy.

Sotos Orfanides, owner of the shop in Hapton Road, said: “My uncle Chris Thedosi, who was running the shop and living in the flat upstairs, noticed the bathroom window open in the morning when he got up to make a cup of tea.

“He thought it was strange and shut it, but when he got downstairs and saw what had been taken, he was very frightened.

“He was crying to me and saying he couldn’t do it anymore and that he would be going home.

“I think we’ve been targeted. We’ve been burgled and we’ve had phone calls asking us what we are doing here and telling us to go back to our own country.”

The burglar snatched the till, containing around £100, and two mobile phones worth around £20.

In August 2013, the business was targeted by people threatening to ‘burn it down’ after a banner was hung outside the shop which said ‘Under new management with English owners’, which was branded racist.

Mr Orfanides then adapted the sign to read ‘Under new management with English meals’, finally removing the sign altogether in May this year. He said: “I have never been racist, but my business has suffered badly because of the sign.

“Though we’ve always had the support of the local people, they are magnificent. We’ve had trouble from every side except the local people.”

The shop will reopen today under the management of Mr Orfanides’s second cousins, brother and sister Steven and Maria Kimpriktzis, and will be selling traditional fish, chips, pies and more.

Mr Orfanides said: “We will be using fresh fish every day and good quality stock. We just want to bring good quality food to the local people.”

A Lancashire Police spokesman said anyone with information on the burglary, which happened between 11pm on Sunday, September 28 and 7am on Monday, September 29, should call police on 101.