A THIEF tricked music store staff into leaving him alone for a few minutes in order to steal an expensive tablet.

Family-run Rimmers Music Store in Goodwin Street was burgled on Wednesday.

The store manager said a colleague had followed the man around the store even chatting with him about piano lessons but had left him alone so he could "make a phone call".

The manager said: "He made his way to the piano showroom on the ground floor and my colleague went with him. My colleague had a chat with him about pianos for about 10 minutes and he said I'm interested in piano lessons for my daughter.

"Then he said 'I have a phone call, can I have a minute?' My colleague left him, being polite, in the showroom.

"Watching the CCTV we can see he didn't make the phone call, he walked past a display that had an iPad on a bracket on a metal arm.

"He looked both ways and he's ripped the iPad and the arm and put it in a satchel bag. Then walked to the front door and on his way down taken his phone out to pretended to be on his phone and said 'I've really got to go'."

Staff realised the iPad had gone missing that same day and called police at 3.50pm.

The store manager hoped someone would recognise the man from the CCTV.

This is not the first time Rimmers has been targeted.

In May a set of mixing desks was taken in another daytime theft.

The manager said in that incident the man was caught by police and made to pay for the item.

Anyone with information about the theft should call 101 quoting crime number 186697R/18.