Newsagent demands action after latest raid

Nov 25 2008 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Newsagent demands action after latest raid

A HUDDERSFIELD shopkeeper who has fallen victim to robbers many times in recent years feels let down by Kirklees Council and the police.

Newsagent Dinesh Joshi, 51, has suffered a catalogue of crime over the last few years and has been attacked by robbers several times, along with his mother, Maniben.

In the most recent robbery bid, on Saturday night, the pair fought back, when they used his 75-year-old mother’s walking stick to fend off a gun-toting robber who fled empty-handed.

Now Mr Joshi, of Joshi’s newsagents in Swan Lane, Lockwood, said Kirklees and the police should do more to make people feel safer in the area.

He said that even after the Examiner featured a catalogue of crime in 2003 and Mr Joshi and his mother were beaten up by raiders in 2006, no-one from Kirklees Council’s community safety section came to see him, even though he has rented the shop from the council for more than 20 years.

Mr Joshi wanted better street lighting and CCTV cameras, but said nothing happened. So he footed the bill himself in summer to set up a CCTV system to protect his shop.