TWO business partners who run a guitar shop in Dursley told their story about the theft of a £1000 guitar and how it eventually came to be returned.

A Martin mahogany acoustic guitar costing £1,100 was stolen from Intersound Guitars in Parsonage Street in July last year and, following a lengthy legal process, has just recently been returned to the store.

Steve Smith and Denver Thirlwell spoke to the Gazette about the guitars journey from their window display to a Cash Converters in Gloucester – and the charges that were brought against the woman who tried to flog it.

Denver had just bought into the business in July, 2014, and was alone in the shop after opening for the day in his first week.

“I had only just unlocked the door of the shop and was behind the counter when I heard the door open,” he said.

“We used to have a display in the window and man opened the door slightly and went to take one of the guitars. He must have known what he was doing because he reached over a less expensive guitar to get that one.

“I ran out from behind the counter and into the street. Somebody told me he had gone into the alley. When I made it there he was already at the other end and I realised I had left the shop unattended.

“I called the police and they were here within minutes, but they said he had had a car waiting for him at the other end of the alley.”

After resigning themselves to the loss of the guitar – a loss worsened by their insurance company’s refusal to pay out for shop lifting – the pair were surprised to receive a phone call from a Gloucester Cash Converters just weeks after the guitar had been stolen.

Denver said a woman had entered the Cash Converters with the guitar and sold it for £150 after providing an inexperienced clerk with false information.

When the manager returned he suspected something unusual about the guitar and referred to a list of stolen items provided by the police, discovering that it had been stolen from Intersound.

Despite providing false information, the woman was known by police and identified in CCTV footage.

She would later be charged with handling stolen goods and ordered to pay a small fine in addition to court costs, a result which left Denver disappointed.

He continued: “We do have our guitar back now, which we can sell, so that is a positive, but we went 16 months without it while it was being held for evidence.

“The police and cash converters were both great, but we just feel the justice system doesn’t work. She could have at least been given some community service.”

Despite some disappointment, the incident has not had an effect on Denver’s view of Dursley.

“Dursley is a nice, quiet place and you don’t often get that sort of thing. Steve had run the shop for 16 years before I started and never experienced anything on that level.”

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