A WYKE business owner says he no longer sees a long-term future in the village after his shop was raided for the third time this year.

Gareth Kendall, who has run Ken Deli on Town Gate with his wife Jenna for 15 months, has been pushed to the limit by mindless crime.

And he says the latest raid, which happened overnight on Wednesday, is the final straw.

“They’ve actually got all the stock and put it in the bin,” Mr Kendall, 31, said.

“It’s cost us the business basically.

“We’re going to try and recoup what we have lost, we’re going to have to sell the shop at a knock-down price because we can’t keep going through this every six months. I already knew, in my head, what I was going to do if it happened again.”

The pair have ploughed their efforts into the shop since they moved in, but have been left heartbroken at the latest raid.

“There’s just no passion anymore - you try to provide things for people and generally 99 per cent of the population of Wyke are brilliant, but that one per cent has unfortunately ruined it,” Mr Kendall said.

He added: “I’m annoyed, because they say in business it takes 12 months for it to start coming up. We’ve been here for 15 months now and we’re seeing real profitable turnover, but on the other hand we’ve both got other ideas of what else we would do going forward.

“So I’m annoyed that it’s come to it this way. I don’t want to leave it like this, but unfortunately what can you do?

“The reality is, it needs serious preventative measures, like cameras.

“It needs cameras, not even a police presence, because you can’t police it at 3am in the morning. It would help get justice for the business owners.”

A nearby bakery was raided on the same night and also left trashed by heartless burglars.

Staff at Marshall’s, Town Gate, arrived at work on Thursday morning to find a side window smashed and the shop turned upside down.

Director Philip Marshall said: “It’s a right mess. They’ve caused thousands of pounds worth of damage and stole £200 worth of food.

“The impact on the business is severe.”

He added sales would be lost, as the shop had to close for the morning.

“We’re still losing money on money, it’s a knock-on impact,” Mr Marshall said.

And sending a message to those responsible, he said: “I think they really do need to take a look at themselves and the impact they are having.

“If this keeps happening, the shops will close. It has a huge impact on the community.”

He slammed the perpetrators as “lowlifes” and called for proactive action from police.

Inspector Daniel Ware, who leads the Bradford South Area Neighbourhood Team, said:

"We recognise the impact retail crime can have on local businesses and our investigations into these burglaries are ongoing.

"Burglaries of businesses and community outlets in Wyke have fallen considerably over the last few months and we believe the work we have done with partners locally in terms of addressing concerns and carrying out crime prevention visits is having a positive effect.

"This work will continue as Business Watch schemes are set up across the Bradford South area to achieve further reductions in this type of crime."

Anyone who witnessed any suspicious activity in the Town Gate area overnight on Wednesday is asked to contact the Bradford South Area Neighbourhood Team on 101, quoting log 242 or 302 of 5 October.