CTC St Clair broken into for the third time in 10 days
A Western Sydney tobacconist which was ram-raided over the weekend, had already lost almost $100,000 worth of tobacco products, after three breaks prior in less than two weeks
Penrith
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A Western Sydney tobacconist which was broken into over the weekend - with robbers driving a car through the storefront- has had almost $100,000 worth of tobacco products stolen after a string of recent break-ins.
Emergency services were called to St Clair shopping centre just before 4:30 am on Saturday morning, responding to reports of a break-and-enter.
On arrival officers arrived to find significant damage to a tobacconist store after a stolen Toyota RAV 4 was deliberately driven into the front of the store.
A group of males stole cash and reading glasses before leaving the scene in the same vehicle, which had been reported stolen from Tempe.
CTC Tobacconist business owner Basman Zabaneh says his son was woken up by the shop’s security system alerting him of three people at the premise, before a car was driven through the entry at around 4am.
“The last times they entered via the doors but this time they couldn’t access inside the shopping centre because we had installed new security measures, so instead the robbers drove their car through,” he said.
In the last ten days the store had already been hit with two break-ins, with Mr Zabaneh saying $45,000 worth of tobacco products were stolen on each occasion.
“This is the third time in 10 days, last time they took my cigarettes, this time they couldn’t get any smokes so they just started grabbing anything and everything”
Mr Zabaneh estimates the most recent break in caused around $40,000 worth of damage to the storefront with the thieves also making off with $12,000 in cash.
No charges have been laid in relation to the most recent break-in with investigations still ongoing.
It comes as another tobacconist, TSG in Lennox Shopping Centre at Emu Plains, has also been subjected to a string of break-ins in recent weeks.
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