THIEVES targeted Tavistock’s Visitor Information Centre over the bank holiday weekend, stealing several hundred pounds worth of vital donations and causing damage.

Some time on Sunday, August 24 and Monday, August 25, a small window of the building at Court Gate was smashed, unlocked and opened to gain entry.

An expensive box housing donations was ‘obliterated’ and the money from inside was stolen.

The till and accompanying computer system, which had only recently been bought and installed at a cost of a few hundred pounds, was extensively damaged and money was taken from within, along with part of the till.

The visitor information centre (VIC), which has only just celebrated its first anniversary, was closed on Sunday and Monday and the damage was discovered on Monday morning by Geri Parlby, trustee of the Tavistock Heritage Trust, which runs the VIC.

Geri said: ‘I walked in and just saw the donations box obliterated in the middle of the floor. There were several hundred pounds worth of donations taken and the donation box itself.'

• To read the full story, see today's Tavistock Times.