Jewellers to close after 23 attacks (From Wharfedale Observer)
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‘Cumulative trauma’ takes toll after shotgun and pickaxe raids
9:46am Thursday 6th September 2012 in Local news By Annette McIntyre
Robert Bolton and father, Geoff Bolton, outside Bolton’s Jewellers in Guiseley, which is closing down following a series of raids where staff have been threatened with sawn-off shotguns, hammers and pickaxes
An established family jewellers is to close after coming under attack 23 times.
Staff at NG Bolton in Guiseley have been threatened with sawn-off shot-guns, while lump hammers and pick-axes have been used to smash wind-ows in a catalogue of traumatic raids.
Now, following the theft of jewellery from his car, owner Robert Bolton says they can’t go on any more.
An announcement on the comp-any’s website says a combination of circumstances, including the “cumu-lative trauma” of the attacks, has led to the decision to close the shop.
It says: “We have suffered a range of attacks, from the use of sawn-off shotguns, lump hammers and pickaxes to our telephone wires being cut and burglar alarms filled with foam.
“In the recent theft, a number of customers’ items were stolen, and the pain of informing people their mother’s or grandmother’s engage-ment ring or wedding ring has been stolen is something I never wish to go through again.”
Mr Bolton said: “You reach the point where you think we just can’t go on. It is a 24-hour-a-day risk, not just to myself but to my family as well.
“We have had people coming in with sawn-off shotguns, and attacking windows with pickaxes and sledgehammers. On one occasion, a member of staff was flung down a flight of stairs.”
Mr Bolton added as well as the risks now associated with running the shop, the insurance costs and restrictions were now making it too difficult to carry on.
He said: “I feel very much as though I have been forced into this situation. I am concerned and disappointed for the staff that we have because they have been very loyal and they are going to lose their jobs.”
Mr Bolton, who intends to continue valuation work at the homes of customers, said his father started as an apprentice at the Springfield Road premises in 1938, and he himself has worked there since 1975.
He added: “I am extremely grateful for the good times we have had. We have had some wonderful customers, and it has been a privilege to have been involved in important parts of their lives.”
A closing down sale will start tomorrow, and the shop is expected to close early next year.
