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Raiders ransack pianist’s workshop

11/12/2003

A PIANO tuner from Didsbury has blamed the clearing of a railway embankment as the reason thieves targeted a workshop in his back garden.

Paul Thomas, 50, of Saddlewood Avenue claimed that the heavy undergrowth, present before the clearing, protected his garden.

He says this would have prevented the robbers from climbing down to his workshop.

Mr Thomas said: "They wouldn't have been able to see the shed before and they certainly wouldn't have been able to get down as it was thick undergrowth and bramble. People can now look directly into the houses. If someone can break into my workshop then they can get into the houses."

Residents across south Manchester were outraged when the undergrowth by the railway line was cleared by Network Rail. They raised concerns regarding crime, noise, pollution and damage to the wildlife that lived or sheltered in the foliage.

During the break-in at Mr Thomas's workshop on Sunday, December 7, the thieves climbed down the cleared embankment onto the roof of his piano-repair workshop.

They then kicked a hole in the roof and went inside to steal tools and compact discs, which they later dumped on the rail track.

The thieves also took food from a freezer in the workshop and Mr Thomas joked that they would not go hungry. Mr Thomas was alerted to the robbery by a rail worker who found his belongings on the track.

Network Rail said: "Vegetation is being cleared from the line. It is very unfortunate what has happened to the gentleman."