VIDEO: Armed raiders smash through wall of Bilston shop in £30,000 trainer robbery

Urban Casuals is the latest business to be targeted in the town, with JMD Discount Store, Sangha's Supermarket and Jennings Funeral Directors hit in similar raids.

Police today confirmed they are linking the crimes.

Urban Casuals, which is based on Bilston High Street and sells high-end brands such as Nike, Adidas and Lacoste, was raided at 10pm by sledgehammer-wielding thieves. They climbed under a barbed wire fence before smashing through a side wall to get into the building and heading upstairs to plunder the stockroom.

Owner Shahid Saeed said he had lost around £30,000 of stock and would now sleep in the shop at night to protect his business.

Mr Saeed, aged 32 from Walsall, said: "It's gutting and disheartening.

"It won't deter me from trading but it will make me more vigilant and make me enforce measures that I never wanted to do such as sleeping in the shop at night. I'm open seven days a week anyway and that won't change.

"I was going to go on holiday next week but I'm going to have to cancel that as the last thing I want to do is spend money on things like that.

"Everything was fine up until now. Business was good and the online was getting bigger and bigger every day.

"I am going to ring my insurers after I've done the stock take and hopefully they'll pay out."

Mr Saeed has run Urban Casuals for two years after leaving the insurance trade. The raid happened on Tuesday night.

West Midlands Police spokesman Lee Page said: "It was reported to us at 10.10pm at Urban Casuals, High Street, Bilston.

"Offenders smashed a hole in the wall and got into a stock room and stole stock, predominantly footwear."

"Anyone with information should contact police on 101."

Since October, JMD Discount Store, Sangha's Supermarket and Jennings Funeral Directors, all in Church Street, have been hit by thieves. Sangha's had cigarettes stolen on Sunday, JMD toys and e-cigarettes on October 8, while cash and two computers were stolen from Jennings Funeral Directors on October 6. Police officers are treating the crimes as linked

Mr Saeed said: "It's the same people attacking Bilston High Street day in and day out.

"It's all local people. It's the type of people who have a lot of time on their hands."

He added that his shop had CCTV covering the front and back of the building and motion sensors.

"We have all the necessary security but they still targeted us. It just shows how desperate they're getting and that they'll stop at nothing," he said.

"Bilston police station isn't open at night anymore so I think they have taken advantage of that. The nearest one is Wolverhampton but it's still a bit of a drive.

"I was in Birmingham on the night it happened and I still got there before the police."

Mr Saeed was alerted to the raid after his motion sensors went off and he was contacted by his friend Azad who works at Donini Pizza next door.

He added: "I am especially thankful to Azad and to the police who did their job. There is only so much everybody can do.

"Bilston is a very tight community so even if people did know something I don't think they would say anything."