“The hospitality industry is on its knees, zero support, and people choose to do mindless acts like that.”
The words of Mike Brand, owner of Clucking Oinks, after a vandal smashed the window of his restaurant on Castlegate, York, for no reason.
It happened in the early hours of Saturday and was caught on CCTV camera.
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Mike learned of the incident when contacted by his baker, who discovered the damage when he was dropping off buns at the restaurant.
While Mike was clearing up his wife Rachel found the culprit had been caught clearly on CCTV.
The footage shows him walking past with two others, stopping and smashing in the glass for no apparent reason.
Mike said: “You can’t really believe it, can you? The hospitality industry is on its knees, zero support, and people choose to do mindless acts like that.
“It will cost us a lot of money to sort out, and a lot of time and a lot of effort and and to be honest, I’ve seen it quite a lot throughout the hospitality throughout 2025.
“I haven’t even bothered contacting the police, because I know it’s just a waste of time. Pairings down the road had a break in. Simon at Shambles had a break in. Other windows I’ve seen smashed up, boarded up.”
There was no attempt to get in and steal any money at Clucking Oinks – it seems to have been done just for the ‘thrill’.
“If you look at a video, he kind of cheers when he does it,” Mike said. “Which is sickening to say the least.”
Mike circulated the video on social media, and says someone claiming to be the culprit has emailed to confess and apologise.
The author said in the message that he was drunk and he would pay for the damage. “Whether or not that actually materialises or not, we’ll wait and see,” Mike says.
It’s the second time someone has smashed the window on the shop, which dates from the early 1700s and is Grade II listed, so Mike knows how expensive it’s going to be to repair.
Mike, who has worked in hospitality for ten years, says it couldn’t have happened at a worse time – particularly with the pending hike in business rates.
“It’s possibly the worst period of time I’ve seen in hospitality. It’s kind of staggering from the government, really, that they’ve put their fingers in their ears.”
He added: “Trade is certainly down, and I speak to a lot of other independent restaurant owners, cafe owners, hospitality owners, they’re all saying the same.
“All the taxes are going up constantly. No matter what they say about getting inflation down, with food that’s not true.
“There’s a lot of squeeze been put on the hospitality industry, and if they continue on and on there won’t be a hospitality industry left.
“I’m baffled as to why this government won’t do anything to help. I never, ever in a million years, dreamed it would be worse under a Labour government, but it truly is.”
