Britain’s sickest thugs steal £1,500 charity cash from soldier, 84, as he sold Poppies outside M&S
The amount stolen has been raised twice over as a result of the robbery
AN 84-year-old Army veteran selling poppies at a shopping centre had his cash collection of over £1,500 stolen.
Brave Maurice Bastable (corr) was selling Remembrance Day poppies outside a Marks & Spencer store when he was distracted and he turned around to find two of his cash boxes had been stolen.
Speaking at his home in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the ex-Coldstream Guards serviceman said: "I was very shaken up, as you can well imagine, but in an incident like this the police came around to see me in the evening for the first couple of days after the robbery and I'm okay now.
"We now have the four cash boxes on a chain. It certainly is sad that it's come to this. I have never seen anything like this before, I've never been robbed before.
"I am an ex-Coldstream Guardsman but I was given a tunic by the regiment three years ago for the money I raised for the battalion.
"I'm down there three times a year, for armed forces in June for a week, for the Royal Air Force in September for a week and for a fortnight every November, from half past eight in the morning until six at night.
"We all know thieving goes on all over the country but it has never happened to me in the 12 years I've been collecting from the public.
"I think the two men and woman who robbed me are the scumbags of the earth - but then who are we to say?"
News of the robbery reached Facebook and the public responded by donating huge amount of money to the Poppy Appeal charity, over double what was stolen - one woman even wrote a cheque for £200.
Mr Bastable, whose grandfather won a commendation for service in the First World War, had been selling in poppies in Festival Place, Basingstoke, on Saturday night when the theft occurred.
Mr Bastable said: "On Sunday morning one of the same people stole a third collecting box off the actual stall which I was attending but they made a big mistake and were caught on the cameras again and were immediately arrested and then the police followed up and arrested two other people."
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A spokesman for Hampshire Police confirmed that two men aged 28 years and 54 years and a 24-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of theft following the Festival Place incident.
They were all released pending further investigation.
The owners of Festival Place shopping centre made a donation to the Royal British Legion to help cover the cost of the £1,500 theft from Maurice.
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