Staff at New Milton Domino’s and Subway subjected to racist abuse, town council hears

STAFF at high street takeaways in New Milton have been subjected to racist abuse by a gang of youngsters, the town council has been told.

Inspector Darren Ord revealed at the meeting that a group of youths had been carrying out anti-social behaviour in the high street and this was “particularly affecting Domino’s and Subway”.

He said that this had “rolled over into hate crimes and offensive remarks”.

But he added: “I am pleased to say the team have jumped on this group and they have all been dealt, with [some] being arrested, where we can put bail conditions on them to keep them away from the victims and keep away from those areas.”

Inspector Ord added that other youths had been “voluntary interviewed” and that police would be looking at “how we can affect their offending going forward and how we can deal with them”.

He said one of the youths was from New Milton while the others were from Sway and Hordle.

At Domino’s a worker confirmed staff had been target with racist remarks but refused to comment further.

A spokesperson for the company told the A&T: “At Domino's, the safety and wellbeing of our store colleagues is a top priority. We are aware that the New Milton store, along with other local businesses, has recently experienced an increase in anti-social behaviour.

“Our Store Manager has been actively working with the Mayor and the local council to address and resolve the situation, and we are committed to ensuring a safe environment for both our team and the community.”

Hampshire police later revealed that a 15-year-old boy from Lymington has received a conditional caution, as has a 14-year-old boy from New Milton.

At the meeting addressing other crime concerns in the town, Insp Ord said a pilot scheme devoting one officer to tackle shoplifting had paid off.

He said the policeman had been working as a “specific shoplifting officer where that was all he was dealing with.”

Insp Ord said he had “created some excellent relationships with the local stores” and as a result the recovery of CCTV was “much better” adding: “So you have seen on social media quite a few more posts in relation to ID where we can ask the public to try and help us identify suspects.”

He said reports of shoplifting had gone up and that was because “we are actually liaising more and linking in with staff more”.

He hoped the social media posts were a “reassurance” they were tackling crime and “looking to bring offenders to justice”.

Talking about other crimes, he said theft from cars had risen over the summer which he put down to vehicles of holiday makers being broken into “while they were out enjoying walks and enjoying the beauty of what is the New Forest”.

But he said recent statistics showed that compared with last year they were almost 30% down on reported offences.