£30,000 of school uniform from UniformWise Stanford-le-Hope

UniformWise Schoolwear in Stanford-le-Hope was hit by thieves in the early hours of August 23.

The High Street shop’s mobile van – which they use to sell clothes at schools and fayres – was broken into overnight and £30,000 of stock was stolen, according to business owner Paul Grayer.

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The family say they had been advised by police to keep silent over the thefts to stop the thieves from dumping the stolen goods - which have now begun to appear for sale online.

The crime scene - Image: Paul Grayer (Image: Image: Paul Grayer)

Mr Grayer said: “It was devastating when we found out. We are only a small family run business, so this has hit us very hard financially.

“It happened right at the end of August, which is our busiest period and we had lost all of this stock.

“Now we are facing this massive financial hole, and we can’t even claim on insurance as it was stolen from our van rather than our shop.

“Thankfully we haven’t gone completely under, but we haven’t made any money this summer. We have to take that on the chin, but we just don’t want people buying iit from the thieves.”

Items to look out for - Image: Paul Grayer (Image: Image: Paul Grayer)

The items have begun appearing on online marketplaces and selling pages on social media, according to Mr Grayer.

The uniform has been embroidered in preparation for use at Woodlands School in Basildon, William Edwards and Thames Park Secondary in Grays, and Ortu Hassenbrook Academy in Stanford-le-Hope.  

“To know somebody out there is try to make money off of it, having stolen from us, is so unbelievably frustrating,” he said.

“The important thing is that we get the word out there and if people see the items online, they can report it to us or the police.”

Stolen uniform to keep an eye for - Image: Paul Grayer (Image: Image: Paul Grayer)

He added: “The unfortunate and sickening thing is part of this stock was being used for children that are migrating into schools from Ukraine.

“We were offering it to schools at cost price to help out those fleeing the war and settling here in Essex.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “‘We were called to Stanford-le-Hope High Street shortly before 6am on August 23 following reports of a burglary to a school uniform shop.

“This investigation remains ongoing and no arrests have been made at this stage.”