Restaurant booze thief is named by police

POLICE have named a Portsmouth man sentenced to four months in prison after a specialist team investigated the theft of bottles of alcohol from a seafront restaurant.

Martin Ayling of Elm Grove was arrested on suspicion of burglary after police were alerted to a break-in at Southsea Beach Café.

Officers were called at 9.22am on December 14 to a report that someone had gained entry to the café premises overnight – between 1.45 and 2am – and taken four bottles of alcohol.

An investigation was launched by Hampshire Constabulary’s Operation Hawk team, which specialises in burglary.

The 40-year-old Southsea man was later charged with the offence and appeared at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Thursday, when he was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £128.