A FLORIST'S Christmas was ruined by vandals who smashed her shop window.

Susan Vernon, who runs Charlotte Rose off Wheelock Street in Middlewich, was forced to spend Christmas Day arranging for her window to be boarded up following the attack.

She then had to return to the shop four days running while others were enjoying the festive season to deal with police and glaziers.

Shopping trolleys from a nearby supermarket were rammed into the shop window in the early hours of Christmas Day and plants outside the shop were uprooted. It was the third time in three years the shop has been targeted by thieves and vandals in the run-up to Christmas.

Susan was looking forward to the Christmas break after being unable to take any holiday time this year. But by 9am on Christmas morning her holiday was effectively over.

She said: 'I got a phone call on Christmas Day from the police and my mind went into overdrive wondering what had happened, so in some ways I was glad it was just the shop window that was broken.

'But I had to spend Christmas Day giving some details to the police and arranging for the shop to be boarded up.

'I was told they would only do it when I was there, so I went back down to the shop on a wasted journey to find it was already done.

'We spent Boxing Day clearing the large amounts of glass from inside the shop and picking up and replanting the young bushes from the border out-side the shop.'

She added: 'We have been broken into in the runup to Christmas for the last three years and this year we thought we had escaped any trouble, but then this happened.

'The cost to replace the windows will be more than £500. It's a lot of money and you have to sell a lot of flowers to recoup the cost. This has ruined my Christmas.'

Susan has worked in Middlewich for 13 years but says this may be the last Christmas she spends as a florist, despite her love of the job.

She said: 'I like my work and I like the Middlewich people but I am sorely tempted to give it all up - at least I would be able to sleep at night.'