The manager of a designer clothes shop in Heckmondwike is calling for the town to be patrolled by security staff.

Abbass Koolaji, manager of Kool, in Westgate, had his entire stock cleared out last March at a cost of £10,000.

He said if he is targeted again he will leave the town.

"I work very hard trying to keep my head above water," said Mr Koolaji, who has spent thousands of pounds trying to make his shop safe. "I want to finish work at night and not go home worrying about my shop and who is breaking in.z

"The problem is there is no security in Heckmondwike, no closed-circuit television, a police station but no police presence.

"We are trying to regenerate the town. But if half the shops are empty and people are moving out, that's not regeneration. People are not going to come and invest in the town - we have to do something.

"I have spoken to lots of business people here who keep getting broken into and we have nothing to protect us."

During the burglary Mr Koolaji's shop was left bare after thieves made off with fixtures, fittings and even shop dummies.

"I've got every security measure possible in my shop - cameras, shutters, alarms - but they are no good without someone there to stop people breaking into my shop and doing whatever they want," he said.

Mr Koolaji said CCTV would only go some way to stopping the criminals.

"A security company could come and patrol at night between certain times, like 10pm to 5am, for a cost of say £20,000 per year," he said. "We could use Council money and money from Heckmondwike businesses to pay for it."

Heckmondwike councillor Tim Crowther (Lab) said he didn't think a security patrol would be a deterrant.

"Criminals would just wait until the security man was at the other end of town," he said.

"It would cost twenty-odd thousand and then every town in Kirklees would want one and you'd be looking at a quarter of a million pounds before it even started."