This is the moment a thief smashed into a restaurant with an axe and stole thousands of pounds of cash – then returned hours later and made off with £15k of alcohol.

Staff at Bell Bottom Eatery Indian restaurant in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh were shocked to find a huge window smashed on Saturday morning and more than £10,000 of cash missing.

Footage shared with MailOnline shows a hooded man smashing into the restaurant at around 4.45am on Saturday, apparently using an axe.

After initially hammering on the door he breaks in through the window and climbs over the bar where he is seen grabbing the entire cash safe under the counter.

What appears to be the same thief is then shown reentering the premises nearly two hours later at 6.20am.

Restaurant manager Leena Kumar said that the thug had taken more than £15,000 worth of alcohol which the venue had bought for a cocktail party, including bottles of  Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan whisky and premium wines.

She said some bottles of the booze were later found by locals having been consumed and discarded on the roadside near the restaurant.

Ms Kumar told MailOnline: ‘The most suspicious thing was that the guy knew exactly where everything was. The camera shows he was not struggling to find anything.

A grab showing the young male thief running off with a cash till at an Edinburgh restaurant after smashing into it with an axe

Footage shows the hooded thief returning at around 6.20 the same morning before grabbing more items, including £15k of luxury alcohol

‘He tried to break in the door first but the door was solid wood. Then he smashed the window. He straight away switched on the lights in the kitchen. He ate some of the food, came back and took the tills. 

‘It all happened in about 10  minutes. 

‘At 20 past six he was then seen again coming through the same window.’

‘We had a very few very expensive cases of whisky because we were going to do a cocktail night. We usually every month we do a cocktail night or a wine tasting.’

She added: ‘We are shocked by the audacity of the perpetrator and believe that lenient laws may have encouraged this type of behaviour. Local businesses play a vital role in our community and many livelihoods depend on them.

Ms Kumar, 28, said that several other businesses had reported similar break-ins the area and that the incident had added to fears that it could happen to other businesses.

‘People are just ruining the reputation of a good neighbourhood and community. Because of what happened in our restaurant our neighbours have come into the restaurant. They have said ‘What happened with you gives us a fear it will happen to us”.

The restaurant manager, who also looks after the group’s two delivery restaurants in the city, said she backed tougher laws for juveniles who commit crimes. 

She added that while police were investigating the incident, ‘lenient’ laws were not providing a deterrent against juveniles turning to criminality.

‘We are shocked by the audacity of the perpetrator and believe that lenient laws may have encouraged this type of behaviour’, she said.

‘Local businesses play a vital role in our community and many livelihoods depend on them. 

Staff at Bell Bottom Eatery (pictured) in Edinburgh arrived at the Indian restaurant yesterday morning to find the window smashed and food, alcohol and more than £10,000 in cash missing

The restaurant’s manager Leena Kumar (pictured) said current ‘lenient’ laws were not acting as a deterrent against minors committing crimes

‘If the guy’s underage, what are they [police] going to do?

‘There’s no laws on this. It’s only because he knew even if he gets caught, there’s nothing they can do about it.’

She added children were ‘getting confidence’ from committing petty crimes before 18.

‘If there was something that changed in the law that made them really afraid to do things like that, then things would get better’, she said.

In Scotland, while minors between 12 and 16 can be taken to court for serious crimes, with most offences resulting in ‘early intervention’ such as a warning or help from a support organisation.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Around 7am on Saturday, 1 March, 2025, we received a report of a housebreaking at a premises in the Polwarth Crescent area of Edinburgh that occurred overnight.

‘Enquiries are ongoing.’