Former members of staff at Duke’s Corner are among those being questioned over the robbery from the Dundee pub in the early hours of Monday morning.
The Courier understands police are contacting current and former staff members as it is suspected the thieves may have had specialist knowledge of the pub’s alarm and CCTV systems and where the key to the main safe was kept.
A source said a small safe had been broken into where the key to the main safe was kept, which was then used to open the bigger safe, allowing the thieves to remove a five-figure sum of cash, understood to be around £12,000.
The Courier revealed raiders smashed their way into the popular pub sometime after 3.30am and 9am on Monday and made off with the weekend’s takings.
The source said the raiders are thought to have climbed the fence surrounding Duke’s Corner at the side of the nearby Marco Polo takeaway restaurant at the Westport roundabout before smashing through a fire escape door.
He added: “I think everybody reckons they knew what they were doing, it’s pretty obvious they must have had the alarm code and they burst the small safe where the big safe key was.”
Shocked staff discovered the safe open when they arrived for work.
The CCTV system’s hard drive had also been ripped out in the raid at the Brown Street premises.
Police yesterday declined to comment on the source’s claims and a spokesman for Police Scotland said there was nothing new to report on the robbery.
“Inquiries are continuing and we are keeping the owners informed of any developments,” he said.
Duke’s Corner general manager Ian Maclagan said he was disgusted by what had happened and said it seemed “like someone who knew what they were doing”.
“We have got a lot of cameras and they would have been caught on one of them,” however he added: “There was quite a big hard drive for the CCTV in the office which was disconnected and taken away.
“It was our entire weekend takings.”
He added Marco Polo was still open when staff were locking up the pub and someone may have seen something.
He said: “If anyone saw someone climbing over the fence I hope they will contact the police.”
It is also thought that nearby businesses including Tesco, The Globe and Marco Polo may have CCTV footage that will prove useful to the police, while there is a public CCTV camera located on the roundabout at Westport.