A pet shop has been left to clean up after thieves who stole wooden pallets from its recycling area.

CCTV images show an individual dressed in a high-vis jacket moving an industrial-sized bin to get to the items, that reportedly sell for £10 to £15 each.

The manager at The Pet Shop in Sittingbourne High Street, who did not wish to be named, says the crime, despite being low value, has caused disruption to her store.

She said: “We keep the pallets from deliveries out the back of our shop as we simply do not have the space inside.

“We keep hold of them not only to use in the shop but also because our suppliers request them back.

“We also need them to load our cardboard onto before it can be collected by our refuse and recycling company.

“Because of this there is a sign which says not to take them.”

The manager, who has been in her role for the last 10 years, explained the pallets were taken on Thursday evening.

She added: “In the CCTV footage you can see a transit van pull up and a person in a high-vis jacket gets out and walks up to the bin.

“They move the heavy industrial-sized bin out the way to get to our neatly stacked pallets.

“Altogether there were seven behind the shop, two of which had our cardboard recycling wrapped and packaged on top of them ready for collection on the Friday.

“Whoever did this actually ripped the cardboard off the pallets to take them leaving a massive mess behind them.”

The pet shop has a cardboard collection once a week on a Friday and the recycling company will not take the waste unless it is flat-packed and wrapped on a pallet.

Because of the pallet theft the storewill now have to hold its recyclable waste for another week until it gets another delivery with a pallet it can use to repackage it.

The manager added: “Although we haven’t lost any money this has cost us a lot of time and manpower.

“I have been told by one of my customers that you can apparently get paid for recycling pallets and get up to £10 to £15 for each one, the person took seven pallets altogether so that’s all I can imagine them wanting them for.

“I know this isn’t the crime of the year or anything like that but I’m just really annoyed by it.

“People always come into our shop asking for boxes and we always give them to people.

“If the person who stole the pallets just came in and asked if they could have them I probably would’ve explained the situation as to why we need them but given them a couple if I had some spare.

“It’s the taking without asking that has annoyed me.”

This isn’t the first time the manager has had pallets stolen from behind her shop.

However, although it has happened on two or three occasions prior nobody has ever left such a mess before.