A VALLEYS convenience store owner had £200 taken from his stock room minutes before he was due to close for the night.

John Hale was preparing to shut AJ Stores on Monday when four people entered his Cwmfelinfach shop just before 8pm.

He told the Argus three of them asked him for coffee from a dispenser and while his back was turned, the fourth, a man, walked around the shop and entered the stock room.

Mr Hale, 59, who has run the store for the past two years with wife Jill, 56 and son Joseph, 22, said he only saw what happened later on his CCTV cameras.

One of the tills in the stock room contained a cash float of £200 as Mr Hale was about to swap them over at the end of his shift before the next day.

Recalling the incident, he said: “I shut up the shop and then I went into the cigarette stock room to get the £200 I put in the till and it wasn’t there.

“I searched high and low wondering what I had done with it, but then I suspected a crime had been committed so I checked the CCTV.”

Mr Hale said the images show the man turning around to see whether he is watching, before taking the money.

He said: “I was angry really they had taken it and the three people at the counter acted as a decoy.”

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said officers are investigating and would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the incident.

Call Gwent Police on 101.