The owner of a children's role-play cafe was left in tears, feeling "violated" after thousands of pounds were stolen by a hacker.

Sweet Peas' role play cafe in Fareham, was targeted by a hacker who changed the banking information on the till system at the start of May, stealing £3k from the system.

This meant that all card payments made throughout the month bypassed the cafe and went directly into the hacker's account.

This money would have been used to pay staff and rent, and has left owner Pamela Lawrence "shocked to the core" by the attack, which she said had left her feeling "violated".

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On Friday, when Pamela, 62, checked her account, she said she "didn't want to believe it". Just £87 was left of an expected £3,000.

"I just thought, where has it gone?" said Pamela. "In front of my eyes, I was being logged out, and when I tried to log back in, it had a different username. 

"I always thought of hacking as a one-off thing. The thought of someone sitting behind our till, invisible and milking us for as long as they could, I just really feel violated. It just terrifies me.

"I went back to my daughters and just cried."

Pamela has been in touch with her till system, Zettle, to try and recover the money, and has contacted the Police and Fraud Action.

Pamela is urging other small businesses to be vigilant against cyber attacks, adding: "Little family run independent business should realise cyber attacks can happen to them, it's not only the M&S who get targeted, change passwords weekly, look at your accounts daily, twice daily, log out all the time, be vigilant, be cautious, be untrusting.

"We aren't a faceless company, we aren't a franchise or multinational, our staff and even some of our customers are like family, we aren't a business whose number one focus is on making 'loads of money' and this invisible attack has cut deep, it isn't a flesh wound like the robbery, a sticky plaster won't fix the financial impact this has had."

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A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the café recover the lost money and keep its doors open. It can be found by searching "Help Sweet Peas keep providing fun for Fareham tots".

Despite the substantial stress and heartache, Pamela is still thankful for the outpouring of support she has received, adding: "The community support has been incredible. Customers and Fareham have been amazing, and I can't thank them enough.

"It has just made me cry more, but for good reasons. That support when we are feeling hopeless, and then out of nowhere, there is all this support has really touched me."