BUSINESS owners are warning people to be on their guard after mobile phones and cash were stolen from shops in Oswaldtwistle and Accrington.

At 1.35pm on Tuesday, Ellie Fishwick of Sweet Treat Designs in Water Street, Accrington, was shocked when her Samsung Galaxy S8 X Plus was taken by a man who had visited her shop and asked if they wanted any work done.

Mum Melanie, who also owns the shop, said: “We saw the young lad walking past the window twice and looking in and smiling.

“He was about 5ft 9ish with slim build and a tanned complexion with jet black hair. He was wearing a padded burgundy jacket with a beige hoody underneath and black jeans or joggers and trainers.

“He spoke a foreign language and pointed at our walls so we put our phones down on the counter then when we turned around he put a piece of paper with something written on it.

“He said ‘construction’ and then made a paint sign so we said 'no' and it was OK and he left. But Ellie just looked for her phone as soon as he left as she had been messaging someone.

“She ran outside to find him but he had gone and we spoke to a couple of the saloons and they said they saw two eastern European men getting out of a black car and they thought it could have been one of them.

“I have posted about it on Facebook and lots of people have been talking about similar things happening in Oswaldtwistle and Burnley but I think it is a gang as it was all at the same time.

“One of the other businesses who was visited was asking to photocopy a piece of paper and it had the same words as was on ours.”

A man wearing a cap was filmed taking money from a till at Pampered Pets in Oswaldtwistle at 1.03pm on Tuesday.

Owner Suzzan Gilbert said: “It must be a gang going around because they also targeted Dark Glow tanning studio near us and a phone was taken. We were all in the back of the shop and when we came back to the front we saw the till was open. About £60 in £20 and £10 notes was stolen.”

Police are investigating. Call 101.