Thieves strip bare former restaurant

The full extent of burglars' plundering of a former North West restaurant is laid bare in these pictures.
Shanghai Palace stripped bareShanghai Palace stripped bare
Shanghai Palace stripped bare

The Shanghai Palace in Wigan may have closed last year, but then owner Joe Farley had left everything inside after the business folded with the intention of re-deploying fixtures and fittings later in other businesses or selling them on.

But in that time, the images show, the place has been stripped bare.

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The Wigan Post recently featured a photograph taken by a Wigan Council officer of some of the Poolstock eatery’s famous Chinese dragons being driven away by thieves on the back of a truck. And Mr Farley blames at least some of the thefts on travellers who recently set up camp on its car park for several days.

Shanghai Palace in its pompShanghai Palace in its pomp
Shanghai Palace in its pomp

He says the once-popular restaurant has been hit by no fewer than 23 break-ins since it launched seven years ago. And it has been plundered for more than £30,000 of property and suffered £100,000 in criminal damage.

The Poolstock venue shut last year and was sold on, with the new owner hoping that planning permission could be granted for it to be razed and replaced with homes. Permission was granted earlier this month, but in the meantime the troubles continued.

Mr Farley said: “The pictures speak for themselves. The place has been picked bare by the human equivalent of locusts. And no-one claims to have seen anything.”