We will rob them

Seven of the 60 boxes at collection points around the town were stolen by callous thieves in the week when most of the country paid tribute to the fallen of past conflicts.

One of the boxes was even stolen from an undertaker's.

Noel Wilkes, the Poppy Appeal organiser for Evesham, warned that the scale of the thefts could deter fund-raisers in future years.

"It's very disheartening," said Mr Wilkes, aged 77, who served with the former Royal Army Service Corps in Europe following the D-Day landings.

"You try to do your best and help others, then this sort of thing happens, which is discouraging for my collectors."

He added that he feared collectors could start thinking they were wasting their time.

Newsagent Lawrence Jacobs runs Hampton's, one of the premises hit during by the Poppy Day collection box thieves.

The box and its contents were taken from the shop, in Port Street, between noon and 12.15pm on Remembrance Sunday.

"It was on the counter with the box of poppies and we realised it had gone when a customer went to put some money in," he said.

"I think it is disgusting, especially as it happened on Remembrance Sunday as well.

"I felt really sick about it. It must have been some real low life to have been responsible for this."

Mr Wilkes, of Overbrook, said the other missing collection boxes had been taken from Safeway, Halfords, McDonalds, the Shell garage by Bredon Motors, Evesham Working Mens' Club and Philip Tomlins undertaker's.

They were among the boxes which Mr Wilkes and his volunteer helpers had distributed to shops, offices, factories and other premises in the town. He said "It's all voluntary labour and they think it's hardly worthwhile if they're going to get stolen all the time," adding: "It's very difficult to secure these poppy boxes."

He went on: "It hasn't been so bad as this: I think we had three stolen last year."