Jeweller Branded a Racist for Banning Gypsies

This is a slightly unusual story from Cheshire.

A jeweller was repeatedly targeted by criminals gangs, believed to be gypsies from countries which have recently joined the European Union.

Naturally, the police were unable to do anything.

In response, he put up a sign in his shop banning 'Eastern European Gypsies' - and has now fallen foul of racial discrimination laws.

The rights and wrongs of this aside, what is not explained (of course) is why the government is not enforcing our borders, and has gone out of its way to make arrangements which allow poor countries with large groups of people known for their endemic criminality to prey on people in this country at will.

The full story:

In the past 18 months alone jeweller Michael Plant has repeatedly been targeted by Eastern European thieves.

At first he left it to the police to track down those responsible and hoped they would eventually be brought to justice.

But with no sign of any arrests and still more raids, he decided to ban them from his shop - only to be threatened with prosecution for racial hatred.

'I'm not racist, but the fact is I have been targeted repeatedly by Eastern European criminals,' said Mr Plant, 62, yesterday.

'I should have a right to say which people come into my shop and not face allegations of racial discrimination.

'Obviously I don't think all of them are bad, but how can I distinguish who is good and who is bad? Some people coming in to this country illegally seem to have more rights than me.'

The final straw came last Saturday after thieves snatched a men's gold wedding ring from his shop, M&M Plant in Altrincham, Cheshire. Mr Plant, who believes those responsible are Romanian travellers, has run the business with his Austrian wife Monika, 62, for more than two decades.

After each raid he called in the police to investigate but with no arrests and more stock stolen he decided to make a stand and placed a sign in his window which read: 'Sorry, we do not serve Rumanian or East European gypsies.'

After a tip-off from a member of the public, a senior police officer warned him that if it was not removed immediately he could be charged with producing racially offensive material.

'The sign was written in anger after the robbery,' said Mr Plant. 'I feared we would get more in that afternoon.

'I just put it straight in the door. The police took offence at the word "gypsies".

'I've had several robberies and the capture of criminals is very low.

'The thieves use distraction techniques like a child running around and they get away with your stock. One morning I lost nine bracelets, worth well into four figures.

' I bet if these people are caught for stealing, they probably wouldn't even go into a magistrates court. They would just get a fixed-penalty fine.

'I've spoken to various people, including foreign friends of mine, and they seem to agree that the whole country is belly-up.

'The police are reactive rather than proactive to crime, they wait for it to happen before they solve it rather than the other way round.'

'I should be able to choose who I serve. That's not just Eastern Europeans - if someone comes in drunk they will not be served either. All I want is some common sense to prevail.'

Police said Mr Plant had fallen foul of the Race Relations Act which recognises gypsies and travellers as ethnic groups.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Police received a report that a shop was displaying a sign which contained writing that was deemed to be offensive.

'Officers have spoken with the owner of the shop. He has been advised that the notice is offensive and he has since removed it.

'We take all complaints of this nature extremely seriously.'

Of course, if they took actual crime and the legitimate concerns of ordinary people seriously, the notice would never have gone up in the first place.