A POPULAR restaurant owner has told of his "frustration" after criminals broke in for the second time in almost two years.

Harry Khinda, owner of the Crafty Indian in Shipley, was devastated to face yet another break-in around the Christmas period after what has been an "awful" year for the hospitality industry.

It follows a spate of attempted break-ins across Baildon, Shipley and Saltaire.

On Monday, Blush Beauty Emporium told customers via its Facebook page that it was "heartbroken" to find someone had smashed the shop windows and left with "beauty and nail items".

While Waterside Restaurant & Bar in Shipley told customers, "What a start to Christmas" as images showed shattered glass and the venue's till discarded on the floor.

"Something needs to be done," Mr Khinda said.

"You stop one person and next Christmas there'll be somebody else.

"There's no money in the restaurant, all that damage, all that mess, for nothing.

"We're struggling anyway. We can't serve customers. We've got a great little restaurant here, we were doing really well before the lockdown in March. We just want to get back to what we're doing and we have to put up with this as well.

"It's just difficult and it's the day before Christmas, nobody's open. They tried the glass this time, they smashed the door in the lock area until the door gave way using God knows what kind of tool.

"We've had to board it up. All the customers that would come in for takeaway, they can't come into to collect a takeaway. That's now going to mean we can't serve takeaway customers.

"Nobody can come in. We're going to have to try arrange something. It's not very nice meeting customers at the back of the restaurant.

"I don't know when it's going to get repaired.

"We'll be able to do deliveries as the driver can go out the back.

"We can't afford to miss out on these orders. We're still keeping some people employed. Business is slow at the moment.

"It's just going to be really difficult for the next few weeks. I could just do without it.

"This idiots, they don't understand the impact it's having. Nobody leaves any money around these days. What are you hoping to get? It's just worthless. The damage they cause, it's not even worth it. They're not getting away with anything so what's the point? It's so frustrating.

"This year's just been awful."

West Yorkshire Police said it received a call at 4am today reporting an alarm sounding at The Crafty Indian, Bradford Road, Shipley - as well as signs of a break in.

Officers carried out a search of the immediate area and enquiries are continuing, a spokesperson confirmed.

Anyone who saw anything that might be related to this incident, or may know who is responsible for the break-in should contact West Yorkshire Police on 101.

The log number for this case is 167 of December 24, 2020.

Alternatively, you can report information anonymously by calling independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or by visiting https://crimestoppers-uk.org/