Ely theft sees more than £2,000 of jewellery stolen from antiques centre

An Ely antiques centre has has seen gold jewellery worth £2,455 stolen. The owner of Waterside Antiques said two people broke the lock on a cabinet and walked out of the shop with a haul of eight items, the most expensive of which was a £695 nine carat rose gold watch chain.

Tom Peters owns the centre, and traders pay rent to him for a space in the building from which to display and sell their items. He said the alleged incident caused a "painful hit".

Mr Peters said incidents like this 'can easily be the end of us'. He added: "If it carries on for much longer. It is so difficult to make any money, anyway.

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"Nine times out of ten, when something like this happens, the dealer ends up packing up and that is their livelihood gone. It just sends people under."

The owner said incidences of items being stolen have risen "massively" in the last five or six years. Waterside Antiques has been running since 1986.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: "We have a report of a burglary on 6 June, which was reported to us on 12 June. A crime for business burglary has been raised and is pending further investigative opportunities."

The items described by Mr Peters as being stolen were:

• Nine carat gold ring valued at £125

• Nine carat white gold and diamond ring valued at £250

• Nine carat gold, diamond and semi-precious stone ring valued at £110

• Nine carat gold necklace with earrings valued at £385

• Nine carat gold chain valued at £220

• Nine carat rose gold watch chain valued at £695

• Nine carat gold chain valued at £425

• Nine carat cold bracelet valued at £245.