MINDLESS thieves and vandals have caused more than £60,000 worth of damage to Dreghorn’s new Sake brewery.

In the last three weeks, copper boilers and lead have been stolen from the new brewery based in the former Dreghorn Primary School.

The brewery - the first of its kind in Scotland - is the brainchild of the Arran Brewery Company after they took over the site from North Ayrshire Council.

The site will house the brewery’s bottling hall, research and development centre and a visitor centre designed to attract 30,000 visitors a year.

But furious Managing Director Gerald Michaluk admits the company is wondering if it made a wise choice locating the site to Dreghorn.

He revealed the extent of the damage caused and insists that any more break-ins could delay the creation of 30 new jobs.

He said: “This is something we are not used to. You can leave your back door open in Arran with no fear of being robbed, everyone knows everyone and looks out for each other.

“Vandals and thieves have caused over £60,000 worth of damage to the site in the time between agreeing the deal to purchase the site and us moving in.

“Lead has been stolen from the roof resulting in major water damage internally, the copper boilers have been stolen from all three buildings, leaving one boiler flooded.

“We have employed our first three staff but the break-ins continue and currently thieves are trying to steal kitchen equipment, this is all causing unbudgeted for work and if it continues will cause us delays in creating the over 30 jobs planned for the new facility.

“If crime is a serious issue in the area it’s time the good citizens fight back and retake their neighbourhood from the criminals. These boilers they stole are large and someone must have seen something, further they must have sold them somewhere. Someone must know who these thieves are and I urge anyone with information to report it to the police so these people can be removed from society, for a short time at least. “Our site is monitored by CCTV, which clearly was no deterrent, but as the police examine the images I hope they will help convict the culprits. We now have an extra four cameras covering the site and SERCO monitoring the alarms. However, it will be our neighbours we will be relying on to report any suspicious activity so we can make the whole area a crime free zone.” A spokesperson for Police Scotland told the Times that no arrests have been made in connection with the incidents and enquiries are ongoing.