Back in 2022 Paige Mengers – owner of Phoenix Style, featured in Premier Magazine’s ‘Women to Watch’ article. Our annual line-up of female-owned businesses ran by ‘inspirational women leading with prescience, passion, power and poise’.

And if proof were ever needed about the kind of strength and determination that seems to be in the DNA of such entrepreneurs, her recent response of not one, but two of her shops being targeted by criminals is a perfect example…

 

January 14th: Reporting the Cobham thefts

The Phoenix Style Instagram Page is usually filled with picture after gorgeous picture of luxurious resale designer clothes, shoes, accessories and bags. It’s wall to wall Chanel, Gucci, Hermes and Prada. But on 14^th January Paige took to the page to broadcast an urgent appeal for information after her Cobham store had been targeted by thieves who cut security wires and made off with £6000 of luxury handbags. “This is not just an attack on our business” she said, “this is also an attack on our sense of safety”.

Thanks to the installation of high-resolution CCTV Paige was able to share clear images of the individuals – neither of whom were even wearing masks. Her appeal also called upon her local MP Dr. Ben Spencer to ask why Surrey Police had ‘refused to come and help’ apart from giving her a reference number over the phone. Nor was any reassurance given to clearly shaken shop staff.

The Instagram post (CLICK HERE TO SEE) which has now been viewed over 425,000 times, did generate some response including a mobile phone photo showing the registration number of a car seemingly used by the two men escaping. It also finally sparked a visit from two officers who, according to an article in The London Evening Standard told her that their response was ‘because you made a significant noise on social media’.

 

January 15th: Wimbledon store targeted 

Then on 15^th January Paige posted another reel on Instagram in which she announced that her other store in Wimbledon had now also been targeted by the same criminal individuals – armed with weapons, who proceeded to steal more designer bags. Again, there was CCTV footage and clear images of the thieves – neither of whom wore masks.

Thanks to more of her ‘significant noise’ on social media, the robberies were now getting onto the radar of mainstream media. ITV and TalkTV interviews and inches of press coverage followed. Besides the aforementioned London Evening Standard double page spread, The Mail Online picked up the story as did The Times.

 

January 21st: Updating her loyal ‘Phoenix Style Community’

Paige summarised these developments in a post on 21^st January along with a word of thanks to her loyal followers – the ‘Phoenix Style Community’. But she was certainly not going to take her foot off the gas…

 

January 24th: Talking to the man at the top

Seasoned news broadcaster and journalist Nick Ferrari gets around 1.4 million listeners to his LBC Breakfast Show and a resolute Paige knew that a regular feature is ‘Talk to the Commissioner’ where the public can call in and ask questions of the  Commissioner of The Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley. So on Friday 24^th on live radio she used the opportunity to speak to the man at the very top for an update, explaining that the Wimbledon theft took place in broad daylight while her staff were in the store.

a resolute Paige knew that a regular feature is ‘Talk to the Commissioner’ where the public can call in and ask questions of the  Commissioner of The Metropolitan Police

She added “We’ve got clear CCTV, witnesses, number plates, and we even pressed our panic button connected to the local Police station and yet the Met Police have not attended our store and showed no interest”. Aided by a touch of public shaming of the Met’s non-attentive attitude by Ferrari, Sir Mark wanted to take more details off-air and ‘look into the case’. “We will follow up and I’ll get my team to come back to you” he promised.

 

January 27th: The determined entrepreneur gets a deserving result

Then on Nick Ferrari’s show on Monday 27^th the presenter gave an update “A man has been charged following a Police investigation into the thefts in Wimbledon and prior to that in Cobham”. A result which Ferrari was partly right to credit to Sir Mark being put in the spotlight on his show’s regular feature, but recognition should obviously also go to other parts of the media which publicised the case (ITV, Mail Online, Evening Standard etc) plus Phoenix Style’s 28,000 Instagram followers who helped spread the word. However surely nothing compares to the dogged determination of the entrepreneur behind the Phoenix name. Driven by pure frustration at the apparent lack of interest from the police – which might well be a case of an overstretched force in a shoplifting epidemic, Paige has perhaps highlighted the lengths some small business owners have to go to in order to get what they surely deserve as hard working, tax-paying members of the community.

 

Phoenix Style’s website: www.phoenixstyle.co.uk

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Women to Watch

You can read about some of the other inspirational women that have featured in Premier Magazine’s ‘Women to Watch’ pages compiled by Surrey Frills:

View 2022 HERE

View 2023 HERE

View 2024 HERE