A BRAZEN raider broke into a pub and restaurant and helped himself to a bottle of prosecco and calmly drank it with a slice of cake on the terrace.

The Inn at Belfairs, in Eastwood Road North, Leigh, was broken into shortly after 2am on Saturday morning leaving owners frustrated and “disheartened”.

After trying to steal the cash drawer from the till, the burglar was seen on CCTV drinking a bottle of Prosecco and eating cake on the terrace.

He then filled his bag with ciders, cous cous, and a prawn and beetroot sauce and fled.

Owner Greg Weller said the incident will have a huge impact, from throwing away food the thief had touched to damaging staff morale.

He said: “These sorts of incidents impact the business greatly. Not only is it a massive inconvenience but the effect it has on the days after running the site. Till printers have been broken and you are having to duct tape them together and pray they don’t go down on a bank holiday weekend. Doors are needing to be fixed.

“You are then having to throw away food stock because the absolute moron that broke in had his filthy hands of some food items. More importantly it is the mental wellbeing of our team. This affects them greatly. There’s almost an on-edge feeling which is not what we want for our team.

“All because a pathetic excuse of a human being thinks it’s okay to do such obscene behaviour.”

The Inn At Belfairs, which has a five-out-of-five food hygiene rating, shared the CCTV footage on social media which has been viewed more than 33,000 times.

Greg added: “As owners it is disheartening when you’ve worked so hard to have someone come along and think this is OK. We are extremely lucky to have such an amazing following of people. Our guests are amazing, and they have shared the hell out of the footage on Facebook and we really appreciate them for it. They always have our back and that feels great.

“Our team all pulled together and got the clean-up done and prepped the site for opening the following day.”

A police spokesman said: “It was reported entry had been gained to the address between 11pm on Friday May 24 and Saturday morning. A messy search had been carried out inside before the suspect left the scene. If you have any information please contact us.”