Holloway Road Caribbean takeaway Papa Winny’s has Christmas wages nicked in overnight raid

The thieves trashed the takeaway, taking £8,000 in cash (Image: Archant)

A safe holding £8,000 in takings was swiped from Holloway Road start-up Papa Winny’s in the early hours of Saturday morning, sparking a desperate fundraising drive.

The break-in was captured on the shop’s CCTV camera, which shows one man strolling around the shop casually before leaving with the safe and other valuables, while another waits outside.

They had broken the metal shutters allowing one of them to slip under it and get inside.

The takeaway’s owners Stefan Delisser and Rees Tim were left devastated after discovering the raid, which came just a week before the takeaway’s first anniversary on Boxing Day.

He took his hood down at one point (Image: Archant)

The pair, who worked in construction before opening the grilled food takeaway, are now struggling to pay their team before Christmas and have set up a crowdfunding page in a last-minute bid to raise the cash in time.

“We’ve got staff with kids that rely on our wages and we can’t pay them,” Stefan told the Gazette. “That’s the hardest thing about it. We’ve made a business that generates income and we can’t pay people. This has really destroyed us, especially at this time of the year.”

The pair have managed to open this week, and within 24 hours of the fundraising page being set up, £1,700 had been raised by friends, customers and strangers.

“It’s absolutely fantastic that people are actually donating to us and supporting,” Stefan added. “We have been overwhelmed with the response.”

The man wore a white hoodie during the break in (Image: Archant)

Police are appealing for information about the man in the CCTV images.

Anyone who has any information about the break-in should contact police using reference number 2731273/16.

To donate, click here. visit gofundme.com/xmas-shop-robbery-at-papa-winnys.