3:20pm Friday 10th July 2009
A GUN shop owner has won his battle to keep a dummy dressed as a soldier outside his shop.
Hamid Shahabi was told to move the mannequin by Bolton Council because it was upsetting Lloyds TSB bank staff, who said it was giving them flashbacks to a recent armed robbery.
But now the council has come to a compromise, saying the dummy, called Darren, displayed outside the Arms and Outdoors shop, in Halliwell Road, Halliwell, can stay.
Mr Shahabi said: “I am delighted and I’m glad they have seen the light.
“But I wish they had come to speak to me before all this started — I was very upset when I got the letter.”
Mr Shahabi said he sympathised with bank staff but his soldier would stay outside the shop as a tribute to British troops.
He said: “It must have been terrifying for the bank staff but if the bank was robbed by men in suits, they wouldn’t ban people from wearing suits nearby.
“Darren is here to stay. I want to raise awareness for Help the Heroes and he is a reminder of the brave troops who put their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The council said it took the decision because the soldier was no longer on the pavement and now looked “less threatening”.
A spokesman said: “When the officer visited the premises, the dummy was dressed in dark clothing, with a black balaclava pulled down over its head and it did not have anything attached to it supporting British troops.
“The location of the dummy is no longer an enforcement matter because the shop owner has moved it off the highway following our letter.”
The bank in Halliwell Road was targeted in February when three masked men charged into it with a sledge-hammer, crowbar and another weapon.”
No one has been arrested or charged in connection with the attack.
Lloyds TSB declined to comment.
steven.thompson@ theboltonnews.co.uk.
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