Staff at a prominent elderly charity in Bexley were shocked after discovering their offices were ransacked by callous thieves over the weekend.
Age UK Bexley have now been forced to close their main office, located in Sidcup, for the remainder of the day after vital office equipment was both stolen and destroyed by reckless thugs in the daring overnight raid.
A statement released on their Facebook page reads: "This is devastating to us, as you know we work hard to improve the independence and wellbeing of older people in Bexley for whom crime can be a real fear.
"In the short term this has an impact, as our office has had to be closed, effecting our services based there and those clients who had appointments booked in with us."
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Speaking to News Shopper, CEO for Age UK Bexley Guy Stevenson said that the employees who reported the break-in are still "quite shaken" following the discovery.
"The cleaner had already reported it to the council but we later contacted the police.
"All ten offices were ransacked and they managed to get into one of our safes. They took another one with them.
"Some of our laptops and IPads taken as well.
"One or two of our team are quite shaken. It’s not nice to come in and see your desk smashed to pieces," he said.
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This latest thoughtless act follows another break-in for the charity in recent weeks as their Belvedere foot clinic was also targeted where one hoover was lifted from their premises.
As the office has had to close for the day, Mr Stevenson is now concerned for those whose appointments have now been cancelled or rescheduled for later dates.
"We had to cancel appointments for people who were due in for welfare advice.
"People are going to lose out and their applications will have to be pushed back by two to three days
"Our information service is also closed and the phones haven't stopped ringing.
"It's extremely inconvenient and it’s not very nice to walk into," said Mr Stevenson.
The Met have been contacted for further information on their enquiries.
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