Burglars are targeting shops in West Kensington and stole thousands of pounds of goods from a hairdresser in their biggest haul yet.

They smashed into Marie's Hair Salon in Barons Court Road with a fire extinguisher before stealing a laptop computer, an iPhone and a stash of high quality hair products.

Other shops to have been targeted include Greg's bakery in North End Road, Yunji in Charleville Road and the fried chicken shop on the corner of North End Road and Charleville Road.

Salon owner Marie Maxwell, who has run the business for over 30 years, has been left distraught by the criminals, although, by good fortune, she has managed to recover some of her hair products.

A customer saw a handful of them being carried into a nearby flat and when he heard Ms Maxwell talking about the burglary, he became suspicious.

He offered to visit the flat and pretend he was interested in selling the products for the criminals and, sure enough, when he returned some of them to Ms Maxwell they had stickers with her writing on them.

Police were called, raided the flat, made an arrest and recovered more hair products, but the electrical goods were not there and the suspect was later released as the Crown Prosecution Service had insufficient evidence.

Ms Maxwell said: "Having been here so long it's terrible something like this has happened. At least I have got some of the stuff back, and if it wasn't for my customer I wouldn't, but a lot of expensive property has gone.

"We are going to have to look at getting better security because things seem to be getting worse round here."

Detective Inspector Keith Lawson, of H&F Police Burglary Squad, said: "I can confirm police were in receipt of certain information which resulted in a search warrant being obtained and executed at residential premises.

"An occupant was arrested and property recovered. The matter was referred to CPS who decided that no further action would be taken against the occupant."