A SCOOTER-riding smash and grab jewellery thief struck three times in under an hour in Blackburn town centre.

The lone motorcyclist launched a cast iron grate, wrapped in a Tesco ‘bag for life’ carrier, through the front display window of Cash Converters, Darwen Street, at 1.45pm today.

As staff ran for cover from shards of broken glass, he reached inside and grabbed a handful of gold bracelets, which manager Chris Winnard said were ‘into the thousands of pounds’ in value.

Mr Winnard said: “It horrifies me to think that anybody could have been stood behind that display when it smashed through. They would have been cut to pieces.

“He must be incredibly brave or desperate to then come back and target other jewellers just hundreds of yards away.”

The thief then sped off on his 50cc silver and black scooter, but returned to Blackburn town centre at approximately 2.30pm.

He tried the same method at Albemarle & Bond Jewellers and Pawnbrokers, also Darwen Street, but only managed to shatter the firm's ‘anti-bandit’ reinforced glass.

Manager Kirsty Taylor, 25, said that her CCTV footage showed the raider pull up on his scooter and study the display windows for five minutes, before choosing his target - the panel with solid gold bracelets worth between £100 and £3,000.

He was then seen to get a metal grid wrapped in a Farm Foods plastic bag from his scooter compartment and launch it at twice at the window.

Ms Taylor said: “We got the shutters down, our main priority is the customers and staff.

“I’ve never seen anything as dramatic. It was horrible.

"It wasn’t sophisticated, but he was aware of his surroundings because he waited for the right opportunity."

He sped off without taking any valuables, but tried again at Baileys Jewellers, Northgate, at 2.40pm.

It is not yet known if anything was taken from the third premises.

A spokesman for Lancashire Constabulary confirmed the chain of events and said the were ‘making steps to try and trace the offender’.

He is described as slim, around six foot, wearing a dark motorcycle helmet, dark top and grey pants with shoes.