An established family jewellers is to close after coming under attack 23 times.

Staff at NG Bolton , in Guiseley , have been threatened with sawn-off shotguns, and lump hammers and pick-axes have been used to smash windows in a catalogue of raids.

Now, after the theft of jewellery from his car, jeweller Robert Bolton says they cannot go on.

An announcement on the company’s website says a combination of circumstances, including the “cumulative trauma” of the attacks, has led to the decision to close the shop.

It says: “We have suffered a range of attacks, from the use of sawn-off shotguns, lump hammers, pick-axes to our telephone wires being cut and burglar alarms filled with foam at home.

“In the recent theft, a number of customers’ items were stolen and the pain of informing people that their mother’s or grandmother’s engagement ring or wedding ring has been stolen is something I never wish to go through again.”

Mr Bolton said: “You reach the point where you think we just can’t go on. It is a 24-hour-a-day risk, not just to myself but to my family as well. We have had people coming in with sawn-off shotguns and attacking windows with pick-axes and sledgehammers. On one occasion a member of staff was flung down a flight of stairs.”

He said as well as the risks associated with running the shop, the insurance costs and restrictions were making it too difficult to carry on.

“I feel very much as though I have been forced into this situation,” said Mr Bolton. “I am concerned and disappointed for the staff that we have because they have been very loyal and they are going to lose their jobs.”

Mr Bolton, who intends to continue valuation work, said his father started as an apprentice at the Springfield Road premises in 1938 and he himself had worked there since 1975.

He said: “We have had some wonderful customers and it has been a privilege to have been involved in important parts of their lives.”

The shop is expected to close early next year.