A Dundee business owner has offered a £500 reward for information after vandals attacked his car repair shop on Sunday night.
Simon Creamer, 48, said “granite cobbles” were hurled through four large windows, smashing the glass and damaging both furniture and vehicles parked inside the Carmeleon Preparation Centre building.
Director Mr Creamer, whose business has been at the heart of a dispute regarding unpaid furloughed staff during lockdown, said he hoped the reward would help him find the culprit, or culprits.
He said: “One of the cobbles has gone 25 yards through the window, breaking the tiles at the far side of the showroom. They have been thrown through with some force.
“It’s definitely not kids.
“We are offering the reward for information for information the helps us to catch whoever did this. It’s a busy area so maybe a passer-by saw something or CCTV caught some footage.”
Mr Creamer estimated the damage to the car repair centre, at Faraday Street on the Dryburgh Industrial Estate, at around £8,000.
Police officers arrived at the scene on Monday morning, several hours after Mr Creamer discovered the trail of destruction.
Vandals lobbed the cobbles at some time between 7pm and midnight on Sunday evening, he added.
He said he would pay around £500, or offer work in kind to a person’s vehicle, for information.
He feared the attack was pre-planned as the vandal, or vandals, brought the large granite cobbles from another location.
“Years ago this would have bothered me but I have got a slightly thicker skin now. It is only sticks and stones, bricks and mortar. We have insurance and the damage can be repaired.
“I can’t let it get to me because we have so much to do to rebuild the business.
“Orders have just started to pick up again, and we are bringing back the staff we had out on furlough, so I need to focus on that.”
Mr Creamer said HMRC accepted the business on to the UK government’s furlough scheme in March but payments stopped afterwards, leaving some of the his 15 staff struggling to get by.
He said he was continuing to work with Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie and HMRC to solve the problem.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said enquiries were ongoing.
