Swindon Poppy Appeal organiser Alan Baker is blaming the fear of thieves for a drop in the amount of money collected at some outlets throughout the town this year.

Even though he is confident the collection will hit his record target figure of £25,000, he said several collection tins already counted had less money than expected.

"I am afraid that a lot of shops and factories are low this year," said Alan, who has been organising the Royal British Legion appeal in Swindon for the past ten years.

"One tin returned from a garage had just seven pence in it. I think a lot of the reason for this is the theft factor, particularly in pubs where publicans are afraid to put the tins on counters.

"Many are put on the back shelf and people have to actually ask if they can buy a poppy."

He believes many outlets would have taken extra care after reading about it in the Advertiser.

"But this was another tremendous effort by everyone," said Alan.

"The money collected by Swin-don schools is also above average. A lot of young people have bought poppies without any prompting. It is swings and roundabouts and that is why I am still optimistic."

Mr Baker added that reports on a local radio station which said the Swindon collection would lose £10,000 this year because the council would not give it more days to collect were not correct.

"Swindon Council have always been very helpful to us," he said.

"At the moment we are allowed to collect on four days, including Remembrance Sunday itself, and I think a couple of extra days could boost the total.

"We may ask the council for more days to collect but this would mean having to find more people to help out."