SIR: Christmas shopping time is here again and with only 48 'shoplifting' days to go, Bolton shops are already bearing the brunt of unwelcome Christmas thieves.

Having been 'visited' twice by these unscrupulous rogues within an hour on Monday afternoon, I ask myself what more can be done to deter these people who cause so much upset and misery to both shop owners and their assistants.

I was much saddened by one of my Monday incidents when a couple used a small boy to steal for them.

Mrs Shephard, the Education Secretary is bent on introducing the teaching of a moral code into the National Curriculum in order that children should understand right from wrong. What, I wonder, will be done to protect children from the corrupting influence of parents who behave like latterday Fagins.

Perhaps the courts should, in these circumstances, remove these poor exploited children to a place of safety only to be returned to their families when they are old and wise enough to be responsible for their own actions.

As for the parents who abuse their children by leading them into crime, no punishment is too severe.

Mrs W M Holt

Romary Craft Centre

Seymour Road, Astley Bridge

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.