A VAPE shop stands to lose thousands of pounds after it was robbed overnight.

Vape and Juice in Queen Elizabeth Square, South Woodham Ferrers, was broken into at around 2am on Tuesday, with a thief stealing around £1,500 in stock and cash.

Theys smashed through a window beside the front door of the property, and ransacked the inside of the store over a period of around 30 minutes.

Charlie Neil, who runs the business with his brother, Oliver, was devastated when he saw the destruction.

CCTV footage from inside the shop showed a hooded suspect as they destructively searched.

He said: “I arrived at the shop at around 8.50am, a lady from the jewellers next door saw me as I was walking round, she said; ‘you know what happened to your shop last night?’

“I found the window completely smashed through.

“I was quite shocked and upset.

“I went into auto-pilot straight away and started making phone calls to everyone I could.

“I called my brother as it was his day off, the moment I told him he rushed over here to help with the clear up.

“He was absolutely gutted.”

The business has been open for just 11 months, and this is the second incident that has taken place.

Around eight months ago a vandal did severe damage to the front door of the shop, costing Charlie and Oliver hundreds to fix.

With the loss of stock, the cost of fixing the broken windows and their desire to install shutters to prohibit further incidents happen, the business estimates it will lose a total of £3,500.

The business was thankfully only closed for one day following the incident, however, the brother have to live briefly with a boarded up window.

Charlie said: “Thankfully the business is doing brilliantly well as that kind of loss could destroy another new business.

“It’s frustrating that now we are going to have to spend more time closing up the place to make sure it is safe.

“The biggest problem for me is that all I’m going to be thinking about is what shape the shop will be in when I come in the next day.”

The brothers are hopeful the offenders will be found.

Blood was discovered on the broken window by officers the morning after the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101.