AN award-winning turkey farmer has had to close the honesty shop he runs on the side of the road by his farm because of a recent spate of dishonesty.

Chris Rumming who keeps sheep and turkeys at the Lydiard Turkey Farm in West Swindon with his wife, Lindsay, has been running the Eggs and Stuff roadside enterprise successfully for some time.

"The shop had operated in the past with customers leaving their money honestly in a tin," said Chris. "The money was normally equal - or more than the stock taken.

But Chris told the Adver: "It saddens me greatly that in the past two weeks I have had all my stock stolen on two occasions and on one occasion it has been vandalised."

And he added: "The small amount of profit from our honesty shop used to be our holiday spending money."

Passing customers have always helped themselves to the produce on display on the roadside by the farm which has been mainly hens eggs as well as duck eggs and some home grown veg.

The produce is clearly marked with the price of each item and until now Chris has had no problems with people putting in the exact money or even a little bit more to round the price up to an even amount.

But after finding himself out of pocket he said: "I have decided that if someone is going to regularly steal everything I will have to stop.

"It's hard enough try to make a living from farming and this feels like a kick in the teeth.

"I will now replace the stock for a sign thanking my customers and explaining why it has had to end."