THE theft of a charity box at an Exmoor pub sparked anger after police refused to investigate.

The Royal Oak Inn, Luxborough, reported that a Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance charity collection pot was stolen from its bar.

But police said there was nothing they could do, despite landlord Spencer Braydon-Phillips providing CCTV footage showing the alleged theft and being able to tell them the identify the suspect.

However, after this newspaper approached the police about the incident, the case was reopened in a police U-turn.

Initially, Avon and Somerset Police told Mr Braydon-Phillips they could not investigate because he did not know how much money the charity box contained.

The case was handled by a ‘desktop investigator’ in the force’s Portishead headquarters, who said: “With us being unable to determine the value of the charity pot stolen, it is not proportionate for us to proceed with an investigation at this time.

“The details of the suspect have all been linked and recorded on our system and will form part of our intel and allow us to monitor the suspect’s behaviour in the future.

“Your report will now be filed and recorded and no longer actively investigated.”

Mr Braydon-Phillips said the stolen charity pot was due to have been collected by the air ambulance because it was almost full, and a previous one had contained about £72.

He told the Free Press: “I have put a complaint in because I am not happy with their response. I was just shocked by it.

“Any crime is a crime, but to steal from a charity – and they are just not interested. What do we pay our taxes for?

“They are a public service, and they wonder why they get so much criticism.

“They are happy to catch speeders, and I know ‘speed kills’, I get all that, but they should be treating every crime as a crime.”

Mr Braydon-Phillips said because he knew the person in the video footage, he emailed to give them an opportunity to return the charity pot.

He said: “But he refused and made a load of threats about how he knew where my property was and stuff.

“I forwarded that to the police as well and they were not interested in that either.

“Policing is just not what it used to be.”

Mr Braydon-Phillips said the theft was opportunistic and happened on a Sunday morning shortly before the pub was due to open at 12 noon when the suspect walked through an open door while staff were distracted.

The pub supports the air ambulance because Mr Braydon-Phillips knows from personal experience how it provides a vital service.

He said: “Especially in rural areas they really do save lives, and they are not Government funded, they are voluntary.”

Shortly before going to print, an Avon and Somerset Constabulary spokesman told the Free Press that the force was reopening the case.

The spokesman said: “Upon receiving a media inquiry this week relating to our decision, this was raised with an inspector within the incident assessment unit, who has reviewed the investigation.

“Having completed that review, a decision has been made that it is in the public interest for inquiries into this theft to be continued, with a new officer in the case to be allocated.

“It is our policy that in cases of acquisitive crime, the value of the theft should be considered as part of whether a matter is in the public interest to seek prosecution, but it should not be the sole reason any decision is based on.”