A tattoo studio owner has blasted ‘scumbag’ burglars who stole around £10,000 worth of stock in a latenight raid.

Two men broke into Moore Ink Tattoo Studio in Clayton-le-Moors through a back window and spent two hours ripping a safe out of a cellar wall that was secured with five bolts.

They also took a quantity of jewellery, e-cigarettes, tattoo machines, two laptops and a tin containing money.

Sean Moore, who has run the business of Whalley Road for four years, said the whole incident was captured on CCTV which has been handed to police for investigation.

 Officers in Hyndburn have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to following the incident.

Mr Moore, 47, who runs the business with his son Lee Moore, said: “They are just scumbags. We are working for a living and they do this to us.

“When I first heard, the thing I was worried about was whether we could still open. It could have been worse as they could have really trashed the place.

“There are three people who work here with families but they don’t care about that.

“It’s also the knock-on effect of them doing this, as some people might hear about it and assume we aren’t open when we are.”

Mr Moore added: “They were in the shop for two hours trying to get the safe out of the cellar. We had signs saying there was CCTV in operation but they didn’t even care.

“The sign outside the shop was jammed under the front door so people couldn’t get in.”

The man police want to speak to in connection with the burglary

 The incident happened between 8.30pm and 10.30pm on Saturday, March 15.

The two men who broke in were later joined by three other men who helped carry the stock to a car.

They were wearing dark clothing and had scarves around their faces. The gang drove off in a Vauxhall Corsa.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to call 101, citing crime reference number EL1406623.