Ballaro' Italian restaurant in Burnley suffers four burglaries this month

A dejected Francesco Tutrone, the owner of Ballaro' Restaurant in Barracks Road, is now having to live on the premises following two break-ins on April 6th, one on April 7th and another on April 10th, all in the early hours of the morning.

He contacted the Burnley Express in exasperation and said the police and local council needed to do more to protect local businesses from burglaries, a number of whom have suffered from in recent months.

Francesco, who opened Ballaro’ five years ago, said: “I am really down. The amount of crime in this town at the moment is a disaster. The first time we were broken into at 6am and then again at 7-30am. They took the til and caused a lot of damage.

“After that, I removed the til from the premises but then they have broken in again and taken wines and spirits. The hospitality industry is hard enough as it is at the moment without us having to put up with burglaries.

“I believe the police and council need to do more to protect us. Instead of spending all this money on our roads, which are just causing chaos, they should be spending it on making us all feel safer.”

Francesco went on to say he had spoken to other local businesses who have suffered burglaries in recent months, and said that he had been told shoplifting in local supermarkets is becoming a daily occurence.

He added: “I have now spent £3,000 on alarms and 24 hour monitoring but I should not have to do this. There are a lot of drug addicts and homeless people in this town. What are the council doing about that? We pay council tax and we should be getting a better service for our money.”

The Burnley Express revealed in December that Williams Lounge Bar in the town centre had been broken into for the second time in a month, causing the owners to feel they were being targeted. The Electric Circus in Bank Parade has also suffered numerous burglaries.