THE manager of a Newport delicatessen is fearful for the safety of her staff, after her partner was threatened at knifepoint while delivering a £50 food order.

Alison Barrington, 35, and Richard Bryan, 32, both run Deli Delights on Chepstow Road, and received a late night order in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“We received a call at around midnight. We were urged to take the order, we were told it would be a big order – bacon rolls, milkshakes and so on,” she said.

“My partner, Rich, went to deliver the order to an address in the Bettws area. When he got there, there was a man waiting there for him.

“He said ‘Hand over the food and you won’t get hurt’ and he had a knife in his hands,” added Miss Barrington.

At this point, Mr Bryan saw a large group coming around the corner, which prompted him to hand over the food delivery order.

Miss Barrington called the police to confirm what has happened, who used sniffer dogs to track down the group.

She labelled the person she spoke to as ‘stupid’ as he handed over a phone number when placing the order.

“The person who placed the order was not very smart, stupid in fact, as he gave me his mobile number. We gave this to the police,” said Miss Barrington.

“It was definitely planned. We we are hoping to make other businesses aware of the situation.”

Once Mr Bryan returned to the deli, he appeared shaken but unharmed.

“When he got back, Rich said he was ok, but he didn’t sleep very well last night at all. I think he was a bit shaken up by the incident,” said Miss Barrington.

“It could have been so much worse. But I keep thinking about whether it had been me that gone or our colleague Kate.

“Rich is someone that could have handled himself. But he didn’t know that they had a knife. We are going to have to start putting two people on deliveries. It is going to cost our business a lot as a result.

“This is the first time that something like this has happened in two years. To me, there is nothing that we could do to protect ourselves if such an event were to repeat itself. What could Rich have done?

“Both of us are thinking whether it is worth carrying on if we are going to have the threat of this looming over us,” added Miss Barrington.

A spokeswoman from Gwent Police has confirmed that six people have been arrested on suspicion of robbery in connection with the Bettws incident.

“At 1.20am this morning Gwent Police received reports of a robbery in Bettws where food was taken from a takeaway delivery driver,” she said.

“Six men all from the Newport area, aged 17, 21, 20, 17, 18 and 21 have been arrested on suspicion of robbery.”