TWO charities have been left counting the cost after being hit by crime over the Easter weekend.

First, a new charity shop was vandalised within days of it opening.

The Butterwick Hospice Care shop in Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland, opened less than a fortnight ago to raise funds for people with terminal illnesses - but at the end of last week, a double-glazed window at the front of the store was shattered.

Shop manager Judith Richardson said it would mean funds intended for patients at the town's Butterwick Hospice would have to be spent on repairs.

She said: "For now, we have just placed a board over it, but it still needs to be repaired properly.

"I've no idea who would do this. Obviously someone has been out, had too much to drink because it's Good Friday the next day and decided to do that.

"But it's something we can really do without.

"All the money we raise goes towards the Butterwick Hospice in Bishop Auckland, so it stays local - within a mile of the shop."

The hospice's marketing and publications manager, Jackie Leighton, said that paying to replace the window would place a strain on funds.

She said: "From our point of view, we find the vandalism really disturbing.

"We do struggle to raise the money we need to care for our patients, and we have the shops in the high streets to help raise funds.

"Having to replace windows or other sorts of damage is taking funds that should be going to patient care."

Meanwhile, burglars stole money for a church fund after breaking into a Teesdale pub on Monday evening.

The manager of the Wheatsheaf Inn, in Staindrop, said that in total about £1,000 was taken during the robbery, £30 of which was money raised through selling raffle tickets in aid of St Mary's Church in the village.

Louise Race, licensee at the Wheatsheaf, said: "It's awful what has happened, and the fact that some of it was for the church makes it worse.

"I think whoever did this must have been someone who has been in the pub before, because they knew where everything was.