Pub owner gutted by break-in at Greenock's One Bruce Street

Gary McDowell, who runs the popular One Bruce Street, was alerted to the late-night break-in through a member of the public.

But all he could do was listen to the destruction taking place inside - less than an hour after closing time - while he waited for police to arrive.

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He told the Telegraph he had rushed down to the premises as soon as he received word that something had happened, with the incident still ongoing when he got there.

Gary said: “I instantly thought it was probably someone looking to see if we were open but when I came down the window had already been smashed and I made the 999 call.

“While I was on the phone, I could hear things getting smashed inside the building.

“I didn’t know whether it was one person, whether it was ten people, I didn’t know why they were in and what they were doing.

“The police responded so quickly.”

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Despite the incident, the local bar and kitchen was able to quickly re-open the following evening thanks to the efforts of the bar’s staff and supervisor team.

Gary has today praised the hard work of his team and the local community’s assistance in alerting them to the trouble.

He added: “It was absolutely gutting, especially with everything going on with the cost-of-living crisis being shut for even half a day is a big loss.

“We take each day as it comes, we’re not a multi-million-pound chain that can afford to do this – we’re a family-run business.

“Unfortunately, the break-in had happened by the time the police got here, but it could have been a lot worse, it’s just there’s a lot of damage that’s been done that we’ve had to clean up.

“We’re all very close in here, I think every single supervisor and anyone who had a car was in here within 15 minutes of us putting up that we were being broken into.

“It all happened so quickly but I just have to thank everyone for helping out.

“We were all in at 12 o’clock on Sunday night cleaning the place up.

“It was someone driving by that knew someone who worked here that told us, that’s how we found out.

“We’ve got to thank the community for that.

“Even though I’m so gutted I’m also really grateful to the people who have come in and given their condolences and also to everyone who was in at 12 o’clock helping us clean.”

The bar re-launched as One Bruce Street earlier this year, having previously been known as  Nicolson’s Bar and Kitchen.

Gary and his tight-knit team have been working hard to put their own stamp on the well-known premises and say that the break-in will not deter them from continuing that work.

Gary said: “The thought of a stranger being in this building when we weren’t here, with everything we’ve put into this place was terrible.

“The whole place was done up by the staff so to see someone in here we didn’t know was a bit of the shock.

“We only opened up in February and we’ve been working so hard to try and create something new and better for the community.

“We won’t let this be a setback, I was determined that we would re-open.

“We’ve all worked so hard - every single member of staff, family and friends – to make sure this place is always bettering itself and we’re making sure that something like what happened is not going to affect things.”