A PRESTON shop owner is calling for CCTV to be installed near his shop after thieves stole goods worth £1,800 from his store.

Hamid Ali, who runs a shop in New Hall Lane, believes the area is becoming a target for crime.

It comes after a spate of robberies in the area including an armed raid at a nearby jewellers when thousands of pounds worth of stock was taken.

Now Mr Ali has put up surveillance cameras in his shop and closes his store an hour earlier in fear of further incidents.

But he is appealing to police to increase patrols and is calling on the coucil to install CCTV cameras.

"I never expected this to happen," said Mr Ali.

"The way things are going I am very worried because it's getting worse. The area is becoming a ruin and it's like it's being treated as a target."

During the raid last Thursday, at about 6pm, Mr Ali's younger brother Zahir was punched three times in the face by one of three youths who posed as customers at the K-Nect shop which sells computers, mobile phones, telephones and accessories.

Hamid, who gets up at 4am daily to work in a Blackburn bakery for eight hours before driving to his Preston shop, said: "Me and my family are very hard-working people and we have lost a lot of our takings.

"It makes me so angry."

Detective Sergeant Gary Brook for Preston police said CCTV cameras already dominate the crime-ridden Callum Estate and community beat officers widely patrol the area.

Councillor Ian Hall, representative for St Matthew's ward, said: "It would be very expensive to provide surveillance cameras and with requests from other areas too, it would not be fair."

All the offenders were white and aged 16-18 years old.

The first was 5ft 2ins with brown, medium length hair. He was wearing a royal blue hooded top pulled over his head and dark tracksuit bottoms.

His accomplice was 5ft with brown hair and wore a zipped-up beige and brown tracksuit top and blue tracksuit bottoms.

The third, who punched Zahir, was 5ft 2in, with very short, brown hair. He wore tracksuit bottoms and white trainers.

Anyone with information should call Preston police on 01772 203203 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.sss