A fed-up pharmacist is considering turing his shop into a fortress after a spate of break-ins.

Burglars have made life a misery for Ahmed El Dabbeh, who manages Medi-Pharm in London Road, Wickford. In the latest incident - the fifth in two years - a thief broke into the shop and made off with valuable designer perfumes.

Mr El Dabbeh, said the raid is making him think seriously about putting unsightly metal grilles over the door of the shop to prevent further attacks.

A neighbour raised the alarm just after 1am yesterday (Tuesday) after hearing bangs and crashes inside the shop.

Police arrived and a tracker dog followed the culprit's scent down to the river behind Somerfields supermarket, where the trail went cold.

The burglar had smashed his way into the shop by breaking glass in the front door and forcing the lock.

Mr El Dabbeh said he was still working out the value of the goods stolen and how much damage was caused to the shop during the raid.

He added: "These were designer perfumes like Hugo Boss, Eternity, Calvin Klein and Tomi Hilfiger - they're not cheap.

"I'm fed up with it. We seem to get about one a year. We're a small shop and we can't afford things like security cameras. I know the police do their best and I always think we're lucky to be near the police station.

"But burglars definitely know the police station is closed - they don't seem to care if it's there or not."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.