Work blocking off the top two floors of a Black Country store car park to the public cost £25,000, it emerged today.

Bosses at Beatties, Wolverhampton, said they spared no expense after a number of suicides and suicide attempts.

Work to install electronic barriers and door locks on floors 10 and 11 has now been completed.

Only members of staff can now get to the top two floors of the 65ft high building with swipe cards.

Doors and stairwells are blocked to shoppers and the public. House of Fraser spokesman Aaron Foster: “There is now no access to the public.

“Public safety is paramount and it has been a no-expense-spared job.”

The work came in the wake of two suicides at the Wolverhampton department store.

Sodhi Singh Khela, of Myatt Avenue, Parkfields, jumped from the car park in March 2007.

The 35-year-old Penn Hospital patient had gone to the same spot on previous occasions.

He fell from level 11 on Sunday March 11 2007 and a jury at his inquest was shown CCTV footage of him narrowly missing a car in Skinner Street below. Police resources were stretched on the day of the former carer’s death.

The Black Country soccer derby between Wolves and West Bromwich Albion was taking place at Molineux and a murder which took place in in Wednesfield.

Staff at Penn Hospital reported Mr Khela missing at 1.20pm but he fell to his death at 2.50pm. For 47 minutes, there were no police available to deal with the missing person report.

Mr Khela fell from the same spot as Dunstall labourer Noel White, who jumped with his five-year-old daughter Shanice on July 14 2004. Minutes before the tragedy the little girl was seen on her father’s shoulders.