CHARITY shops are a great British institution and without the generosity of the public these outlets would quickly die out.

This country spends £60 billion a year on new clothes and much of what is discarded ends up in high street charity shops or traded abroad to raise funds for by UK-based charities.

Our disposable culture is good news for myriad good causes but it also offers opportunities for criminals to exploit the system.

Encouraged by charities and recycling companies, we are handing more and more of our old clothes for reuse by new owners. Almost half of the garments we now throw out end up going to a new home rather than into landfill incineration plant. Few would dispute that diverting clothing away from the rubbish tip, and generating funds for charities in the process, is a good thing.

It is a common sight to find an empty bag has landed on our doormat urging us to fill it with unwanted clothes and leave it on the step for collection. Callous thieves regard this as an opportunity to make a fast buck.

In today’s Echo we expose just one instance of a much wider problem, whereby charity bags are being snatched from doorsteps and sold by criminal gangs for profit.

We shouldn’t stop giving unwanted goods to reputable, registered charities, but we need to have our wits about us. This means only putting bags out on the day of collection, or dropping them in at a charity shop or into a clothing bank. Great North Air Ambulance Service says that if you miss the collection date for its charity bags, you can call the number on the bag and it will arrange for one of its drivers to call back.

Please don’t stop giving but we need to make sure that we don’t let the thieves win.