A BOURNEMOUTH trader is facing a bleak Christmas after thieves broke into her newly opened store and stole goods worth more than £20,000.

Now Jan Rideout, owner of J.J's Discount Store, in Wimborne Road, Kinson, is offering a reward of £500 for any information leading to their prosecution.

She said: "I am just devastated by this. We have only been open for three weeks and everything was going really well.

"Whoever did this has ruined our Christmas."

Micro-scooters, leather jackets, clothes, watches and Christmas goods were just some of the stock taken during the raid.

Only packs of toilet rolls and bottles of bubble bath, costing 99p, were left on the shelves.

Black binliners were strewn across the floor and shopping baskets were missing.

The cost of replacing the goods and repairing the damage is estimated to be more than £20,000.

The incident took place between 7.20pm on Wednesday, when Jan left for the evening, and 8.40am yesterday when manager Christine Skomski opened up the shop.

Her suspicions were roused when the alarm failed to sound. She went to phone the police but couldn't because all cables had been cut.

The burglars had also pulled the alarm from the shop front and broken in through the two reinforced steel skylights with power tools, believed to be stolen.

Jan added: "It is going to take us a long time to recover from this. We have to wait for all insurance to come through because it is not as if we are millionaires.

"I am offering this reward in the hope of finding out who did it."

Kinson police, who are dealing with the incident, are now appealing for witnesses to come forward.

Anyone with any information should contact the police on 552099 or Crimestoppers in complete confidence on 0800 555111.