A SHOP manager is considering quitting the business after ram-raiders targeted his shop, causing damage estimated at about £4,000.

Insurance companies had already refused to cover Penney's Stores in West End, Kemsing, after the store was burgled five times in 18 months.

Now the shop has become the latest victim of a wave of ramraids targeting cash machines.

Five men used a four-wheel drive car to crash into the shop in the early hours of Easter Monday and loaded a freestanding ATM machine on to the back of an open-backed truck.

It was the third attack in March targeting Kent cash machines, and the eighth in five months county-wide.

Manager Colin Cooper, who lives above the shop, said: "There was little I could do about it, even if I had managed to get downstairs and into the shop I would probably have been run over by the truck.

"There is a cumulative affect of cost, repair costs and stock replacement. That is very difficult for a small business to carry. I am considering the viability of continuing to run the shop."

It followed attacks in Borough Green and Tunbridge Wells earlier this month, and similar ramraids have been carried out in Maidstone, Gillingham and Northfleet since last December.

Kent Police, which has not formally linked the raids, has set up a special taskforce to combat the wave of crimes and offered £10,000 for any information leading to an arrest and charge.

A police spokesman said: "At this stage investigators are unsure whether there is any connection to other attacked in Kent but are appealing for anyone who saw these vehicles to contact the dedicated witness line: 01622 654321."

* Mr Cooper also spoke to KM-fm about his thought after the latest raid.