Practitioner must wait for riot compensation

A practitioner, whose premises were badly damaged in the August riots, is yet to be paid compensation promised by authorities.

Margaret Asare, director of London Eye Opticians in Hackney, London, said she was still awaiting a £5,000 payment from the Metropolitan Police Authority - six months on from the riots. It followed an attack on the practice at the height of last summer's unrest, where hooded youths smashed windows and cabinets before helping themselves to stock.

Asare said: 'If I had been uninsured I would have been waiting all this time to get back up and running and probably would not be in business now.'