The smashed front of The Flower Gallery

A FLORIST has been hit by a smash-and-grab robbery where the thief stole chocolates and teddy bears.

The Flower Gallery in West End Lane, West Hampstead, had its front window destroyed in the break-in.

CCTV footage from inside the shop showed the burglar first try to open the till before putting it in a box to take away with him – and then emptying a cabinet of gift items before running out.

It has cost the shop’s owner Ghulam Sidiq Woror around £2,000 to replace the broken glass.

“It makes me feel really bad,” he told the New Journal. “It’s not because of the money — but my shop is like my house, so someone getting in is a bad feeling. If I had money there I could blame myself, but I only keep pennies in the till.

“And I don’t have a metal shutter because it’s a flower shop — even when we are closed, I want people to be able to look at the flowers.” Mr Woror is a former abdominal surgeon from Afghanistan, who trained and worked as a doctor in Russia before coming to the UK.

Ghulam Sidiq Woror has run the shop for 15 years

He took on the Flower Gallery 15 years ago. In the aftermath of the robbery last week, he decided to go looking for his till, hoping that the burglar would have discarded it after realising there was no money inside.

He found it smashed up beneath a vehicle in the carpark behind Aldi, a few streets away.

“I thought, this guy is not going to take my till home, he will probably drop it somewhere around,” said Mr Woror, adding: “I didn’t know West Hampstead is an area where people can do things like this, but London is getting bad. We need to stop this. We need to help each other.”

The till was found smashed up in a nearby street

The thief caught on CCTV

The Met said in a statement: “At around 07.30 on Saturday June 27, police were called to a business premises on West End Lane, West Hampstead, following reports of a burglary. “Various enquiries are currently ongoing to locate the individual/s responsible.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact police by calling 101.We recognise the impact that burglaries have on local businesses and understand how distressing these incidents are for staff and our communities.”