Scavenging thieves have beern cutting their way into Oxford charity shop bins to find things to steal.

Staff at the Clic Sargent shop, in London Road, Headington - fed up with finding the contents of their bins scattered across the road - have been using heavy-duty chains and locks to secure the lids.

But they arrived for work on Wednesday to find thieves had used hacksaws to cut their way into the bins and left the contents scattered at the back of the shop.

Sharon Walton, acting manager of the shop, which raises money for children with cancer and leukaemia, said the incidents were driving away volunteer staff.

Miss Walton said: "I just don't understand the mentality of these people. Why are they going into the bins?

"Anything in there is going to be stuff we can't sell in the shop. I just don't know what they're hoping to achieve and the mess they have left behind is absolutely disgusting. It's putting people off working here, as it's not a particularly nice job having to clean it up."

Miss Walton said charity shops in Headington were also affected by people stealing items from donation bags.

She added: "We estimate we're losing 10 per cent of our weekly income from these thefts and every penny is vital to us."

Cherie Cook, manager of the Marie Curie Cancer Care store next door, said she was sickened by the latest incident.

She said: "We have had people stealing from the donation bags before but this is just ridiculous. The mess we were confronted with was absolutely disgusting."

The charity raises money to provide free nursing care for the terminally-ill.

She added that thefts from collection bags were an increasing problem.

She said: "Whoever is doing this to us is taking away someone's dignity to die at home with their family, instead of going into hospital. I just hope they never need one of our nurses.

"They should go to one of our hospices and see the people they are depriving - they haven't got a conscience."

At the nearby Oxfam shop, manager Hannah Luechter said: "Donation bags are left outside the store and people come along and are taking anything they want and scattering the rest all over the street.

"This is why we are trying to encourage people to bring donations into the store during opening hours."

Police said they were not aware of the problems, but that the neighbourhood team would be in touch with the stores.

Sgt Yak Taladia said: "There has been an historic problem of thefts of goods from outside charity shops, but for someone to go to those lengths is unusual."