A gallery owner has been forced to remove window boxes from her business after they were repeatedly vandalised.

Janis Haves, owner of Lovers Lights Gallery at Twickenham Green, said the first incident happened last summer when a flowering fuschia was pulled from the box and, since then, the shop had been targeted a number of times.

The flowers and boxes were repeatedly replaced outside the gallery until Ms Haves decided to begrudgingly remove them for good after the most recent incident last month.

She said: "It is really distressing because it cost me quite a lot of money to keep replacing the planters and the plants. The cottage I just moved in to had a hanging basket outside and that was taken too. I don’t know if there is a plant thief going around in Twickenham."

Ms Haves, 53, said she had not reported the vandalism to the police because she did not feel it would be a good use of their time.

She added: "I have put a lot of time and effort in to the front of the shop and the customers comment on how nice it is. It is a shame because the green is a nice area and people are normally nice and I can’t imagine who would think it was OK to do that."