Devon and Cornwall Police have sent out an alert warning the public of suspicious activity that has been reported in shops around West Cornwall and Mid Cornwall.

Linzi Berryman, DC Alert Officer for Devon & Cornwall, said:

"We would like to make shops aware that we have received reports of males believed to have made fraudulent purchases in shops, the most recent reports have taken place in the West and Mid Cornwall area.

"Three males have entered several shops and purchased items of high value such as alcohol and cigarettes, the cards used for payment are believed to be fraudulent, numerous cards have been used for payment."

This follows a social media post which was uploaded by Padstow shop owner, Amelia Keeble, appealing for any information on men that entered her shop.

Amelia Keeble says that four men entered her shop on one occasion, and then five on another visit.

The post, which features CCTV imagery, reads:

"Please let's keep the sharing going and hope we can catch these individuals. They were driving a grey BMW 420, we are after the registration plate of this vehicle as we believe it will lead us closer to finding them.

Sadly we fell victims of card fraud and will lose not hundreds but thousands of pounds due to their actions.

Please be vigilant and help us get justice....."

A Facebook user replied to the post, saying:

"Pretty sure these were in Mabe stores on Saturday around 5/6pm buying 100s of packets of cigarettes and alcohol"

It has also come to light that a village shop in Ponsanooth was targeted by the group.

Another post on Facebook from Constantine Bay Stores, stated:

"They are only attacking small independent village shops, which is crippling, £2400 yesterday in one shop in Truro, £3500 just from us last week.

The list goes on and on.....

This could be disastrous for some businesses, it's the wrong time of year for this to happen, it's a long winter as we are all so seasonal."

The CCTV images from the Constantine Bay Stores in Padstow have not been commented on by police, nor are they actively part of their current investigation.

If you have information please phone 101, or 999 if a crime is taking place quoting log 379 17 November 2019.