Customers and staff at a betting shop are heartbroken after thieves stole £1,500 they had raised for a children's charity.

Heartless burglars took the 2ft-high whisky bottle, known by punters as the "babies' bottle", from Ladbrokes in Collingwood Road, Witham, after throwing part of a concrete fence post through the glass front door on Wednesday, June 21, at about 6.45am.

Shop manager, Paula Rainger, said: "They knew exactly what they wanted."