A MONMOUTH Street trader says he is considering giving up his shop after suffering his sixth attack of serious vandalism since opening in 1996.

David Coles single-handedly chased away a man who was "booting-in" his window during the early hours of the morning on Sunday, May 14, but was still faced with a £750 repair bill to replace the glass and damaged stock.

The 43-year-old says he has forked out more than £8,000 in repairs and replacements to his Past and Present store over the past ten years and is now wondering whether it is worth persevering.

Police are investigating the incident, which could have been a lot worse had David not chosen a different route home from a night out.

"The chances of me passing the shop and seeing this happen are so small because I don't normally take the route home in the car," he explained.

"My girlfriend was driving us past and I just saw this bloke booting-in the window.

Then we heard the smash and that's when I got out and went over to ask him what he was doing.

"Putting it mildly, he asked me to leave and said that he was having a toilet break."

The vandal then barged David out of the way and ran off towards Eastover, leaving him to pick up the pieces of yet another mindless attack. The frustrated shopkeeper continued: "I think these people are trying to steal something portable. I put a lot of nice things in the window and they come past on the way home from the pub and fancy taking something with them.

"It's heartbreaking because the glass goes everywhere and goes into all the furniture which is then irreparable.

"I thought about putting up shutters but that just ghettoises the town that's not the way."

Monmouth Street is covered by CCTV but in the early hours of the morning it is concentrated more on revellers coming home through Eastover rather than pointing towards David's shop.

Police spokesman Wayne Baker told the Mercury: "It appears to be a case of criminal damage. The offender is described as a black man, about six-feet one inch tall with dark short hair with a blond stripe in the middle.

"He appears to be early to mid-20s and around 15 stone wearing a dark zip-up top."

Anyone with information should call crimestoppers on 0800-555111 or Bridgwater police on 0845-1567000.

David would also like to thank the lady in St John Street who let him use her mobile phone to call the police.