SHOPKEEPERS in East Lancashire are giving up their trade because of the rising tide of crime against them.

A survey has revealed nine out of ten independent retailers questioned had been the victim of crime in the last year.

Half said they felt like giving up their trade because of their experience of crime and only a third said they bothered reporting incidents.

Ann Waddell, regional administrator of the Lancashire Federation of Small Businesses, said the small shopkeeper was being forgotten.

She said: "You only have to look at how many small shops are boarded up to see that retailers have had enough of crime.

"Big businesses in towns and out-of-town centres are well protected with closed-circuit TV but smaller shops in villages are not.

"That has forced the criminals to target small shops where there is a lack of adequate security.

"I know one trader who has been robbed three times recently. He's getting to the end of his tether and I should imagine is considering his future."

Gangs of youths, schoolchildren and drug addicts were blamed for the majority of crimes at corner shops and grocers, according to the survey, which was carried out by Independent retail News magazine.

Among more terrifying incidents reported around the country were a trader threatened with violence by a drug user and a check-out girl shot with an air rifle from a playing field opposite a store.

A quarter of respondents said they had suffered a physical assault.

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