RAIDERS have ransacked the offices of The Oldham Foodbank, stealing a computer hard drive with precious client information and three tables as well as £200 in cash.

Thieves struck over the weekend, removing a pane of glass at the rear of the Three Crowns Centre in Manchester Street to gain access.

The intruders ripped off the doors of the filing cabinets in the office of manager Lisa Leunig and rifled through the drawers of her desk.

“They’ve made quite a mess of the place,” said Lisa. “The only blessing is that they’ve not taken anything and it doesn’t appear they’ve come in for money and we’ve got four other computers.”

The break-in has also led to the loss of information the foodbank was gathering as part of a three-year research with Edinburgh University.

On two of the stolen tablets was the results of a survey asking users why they needed the foodbank and the other stored vouchers for top ups of electricity and gas.

Lisa also said the centre had just experienced the busiest festive period in its seven-year history.

“I think a lot of that is down to the Universal Credit issue. The change has a big effect on families,” she said.

“On the Friday before Christmas we did 74 vouchers – a lot of families needing food. Thankfully, we just about had enough, but we always do, because Oldham is a really generous town when it comes to giving.

“The minute we send information out to say we are short of something, it always comes in straight away.”