A Shropshire garage boss has been keeping his Remembrance Day poppies and collection boxes under the counter — because heartless thieves keep stealing them.

Zahid Hussain, the owner of the Shell garage in Holyhead Road, Ketley, Telford, said that he had come under fire because he did not appear to be selling poppies.

But today he said he had initially been forced to keep the poppies and collection boxes under the counter because thieves kept taking them when staff had their backs turned.

Mr Hussain has now changed his policy but until yesterday customers had to ask for them instead of just picking them up from a desktop box. The collection box remains under the counter.

Bosses at Shell today said they had originally banned all charity boxes because of thefts.

But Cristobal Loeda, spokesman for Shell, said they reversed their policy after requests from customers.

“Having reviewed our policy and listened to customers, we are happy to endorse collection boxes for the Poppy Appeal at Shell petrol stations,” he said.

“We realise our customers have been upset by our original policy. We apologise. The main reason we did not have collection boxes was to reduce the risk of robberies that sometimes occur at petrol stations.

“We support the Royal British Legion and the Poppy Appeal.”

David Thomas, county manager for the Royal British Legion, said they were never happy when someone tries to steal from the charity.

He said: “There’s no need to steal from a charity. Often there’s a little old lady who donates maybe £1 and that’s all she can afford and that’s what we think is so awful.

“It’s usually places like garages that they target, while the poor person behind the counter does not realise.

“We rely totally on donations and we get no government help. If we have any evidence of anyone stealing we will always prosecute them.”

Martin Young, chairman of Ketley Parish Council, added: “It’s just absolutely disgraceful that anyone would even think about taking it.”

By Jason Lavan