A GANG with Irish accents drove off with £10,000 worth of shoes after promising to pay when they had changed their Irish money.

Police alerted ports and are appealing for witnesses after the theft at W&M Footwear Wholesalers, Bacup Road, Rawtenstall.

The three thieves had been to the warehouse twice before with another Irish tradesman called Jim, and had paid cash for large amounts of shoes.

They arrived on the premises between 9am and 11am yesterday in a royal blue Ford Transit van with part of the front bumper missing, and a white Toyota van. They ordered the shoes and staff helped them to fill the vans with hundreds of pairs of green and blue heavy men's shoes with the word Hods on the boxes.

One man drove away saying he was going to pick up another man who was at the bank changing their punts into pounds to pay for the stock.

While he was gone the two remaining men escaped from the premises in the second van.

Police have issued descriptions of the three men who are all in their thirties, stocky and about 5ft 9in tall. One had sandy, short, receding hair, answered to the name Mick and was wearing a polo neck shirt and dark anorak.

The second thief had black, curly, receding hair, wearing blue jeans and a navy blue shirt.

The other had untidy hair, was referred to as Poddrig and was unshave.

Anyone with information should contact Rawtenstall CID on 01706 215242.

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