A STUNNED hair and beauty therapy salon owner has been left counting the cost of a burglary after his insurance company refused to pay out.

Gordon Kenyon owns Plus 2 Hair and Plus 2 Beauty in Manchester Road, Haslingden, and another hair salon in Accrington.

Burglars either used duplicate keys or stolen keys to get into the salon a month ago and, even though Gordon replaced the locks less than a week later, he was burgled a second time.

He said: "The insurance company have said I was not insured because if the keys were stolen there was no violence in their theft. Because there were no signs of a forced entry into the salon there is no liability on their part

"I wonder if people realise that if they have their keys stolen and then their house burgled they too could find they were not insured."

Professional colours, perm and equipment worth £600 to £900 were stolen in the first burglary and a further £700-worth of equipment was taken in the second raid.

A lot of personal equipment from Gordon's stylists was also taken in the burglaries. He has yet to claim for the second burglary. He said: "With the property stolen, replacing the locks three times and fitting a new burglar alarm, the whole package has cost me £3,000."

Gordon said he was sending details of the incident to a meeting of the National Hairdressers' Federation, which is being held at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Clayton-le-Moors, this weekend. A spokeswoman for his insurers, Royal and Sun Alliance, confirmed his premises were not covered.

She said: "As the policy wording says a forced entry needs to be made in order for the place to be covered."

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: "Generally speaking, under these circumstances a business customer would not be covered if there is no forceable entry.

"The situation is slightly less clear in relation to domestic properties, where the individual circumstances would be looked at.

"All customers should look at their policy and, if there is anything they are not sure about, they should check it with the company.

"If they have to make a claim, they should follow the process set out and make sure they have informed the police and obtained a crime number and as much information from the police as to how they believe it to have happened."