£1000 reward offered to help capture cafe fire-raisers

May 6 2010 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

A POPULAR cafe that was torched by vandals reopened last week - but the owner is still offering a reward to catch the culprits.

Yobs robbed and trashed, then set fire to the Estate Cafe, in Blantyre Industrial Estate, in February, causing over £50,000 worth of damage.

Raiders broke into the shop between evening of Sunday, January 31, and the early hours of Monday, February 1.

Several items were stolen during the incident, including a money float worth £60 and a cash box from a games machine.

The thieves then set the storeroom alight, causing considerable damage to equipment.

Owner Bryan Baird was forced to close the gutted cafe for seven weeks as he struggled to repair the damage the crooks caused.

And this week the 60-year-old revealed that he would not go back on his offer of £1000 reward for information leading to the prosecution of those responsible.

He said: “The store has been completely refurbished, because it had been totally destroyed by the fire.

“We had to get new walls, new floors, new ceilings and even electrics in. I had to start again as it was an empty shell.

“Police told me they are looking into it, and are examining CCTV footage, but it has been months

“The fact is, someone set fire to my cafe, and they appear to have gotten away with it.

“I don’t understand why someone would do this to us. I owe no one anything, I haven’t had any fall outs with anyone and I have no enemies.

“This has been my livelihood for 10 years. It wouldn’t be printable what I would say to the people who did this.

“The offer of £1000 to anyone with information that could lead to an arrest is still open.”

Mr Baird also explained that he has taken extra security measures to avoid a repeat occurrence.

He is preparing to install a new CCTV system in the cafe, as well as razor wire and an eight foot -high fence round the back perimeter.

He added: “Business has been slow so far, but no one knows we’ve reopened.

“A lot of our customers usually drove in to buy food, coming from all around the area. We had our regulars and we gave them a cracking feed.

“It’s just a case of letting people know and hoping they come back.”

Mr Baird’s daughter Leanne Lyons (29) discovered the wrecked cafe when she arrived to open for work on a Monday morning at around 7am.

She told the Advertiser: “I saw that the padlock to the shutters was broken. When I opened the door thick smoke just came pouring out. The place was just black with smoke.

“The people responsible had pulled food out of the fridge and trashed the games machine. They made sure there was nothing left.”

The culprits then set fire to items in the backstore, which police believed to be paper, which smouldered all night. No accelerant was used.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police confirmed this week that enquiries are still ongoing into the wilful fire-raising, which will include the study of CCTV footage.

Anyone with information about the fire should contact Blantyre Police Office on 202501, or alternatively call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.