Advice issued following North Baddesley and Romsey restaurant burglaries

We have issued crime prevention advice following a number of burglaries and thefts at restaurants in the Test Valley.

Officers received reports of five incidents this month at restaurants in North Baddesley and Romsey.

The first incident took place at around 9.15pm on Thursday 16 January, at the Chef Peking restaurant in Winchester Road, Romsey.

Three men entered the takeaway. One of them jumped over the counter and stole a cash box on the counter.

At around 9.40pm on Thursday 23 January, a man entered the Sheung Moon Takeaway in Botley Road, North Baddesley, leant over the counter and stole cash from a cash tin.

The third incident was reported to have taken place at the Water Margin restaurant in Botley Road, North Baddesley, sometime between 11pm on Thursday 23 January and 10.30am the following day. An attempt had been made to enter the building, but nothing was taken.

The fourth incident took place at the Mandarin Chef restaurant in Winchester Road, Crampmoor, sometime between 8pm and 8.30pm on Saturday 25 January.

A group of men entered a living area above the restaurant and stole cash.

The fifth incident took place at Natraj in Stirling Walk, Romsey, at around 3.30am on Monday 27 January.

The restaurant was broken into and a till containing cash was taken.

Officers are currently investigating these incidents and we are looking to see if they are linked.

Inspector Chris Taylor said: “Our enquiries are ongoing but if you have any information about any of these incidents, please get in touch by calling 101.

“These are all independent businesses and such incidents can have a large impact.

“While we will continue to follow our lines of enquiry, we would like remind business owners to look at their security measures and practices.

“This includes not keeping cash in tills overnight, to not hold high amounts of cash in tills during trading hours and to use bolted-down safes with a time lock and anti-tamper sensors that trigger an alarm.”

For further advice for business owners, please see the following link: https://www.hampshire.police.uk/cp/crime-prevention/business-robbery/protect-your-business/