A LANDLORD has made an appeal to catch a burglar who raided his pub as his family were upstairs getting ready for work.

Paul Batty and his wife and son were in their flat above the Robin Hood pub in Market Street, Tottington, when the break-in happened at about 6am on Tuesday.

The burglar made off with £50 in cash, an Xbox, and a number of raffle prizes, including a remote controlled car.

Mr Batty has since published CCTV images relating to the burglary on the pub’s Facebook page in the hope that someone may have information.

He believes a burglar entered the pub by climbing on a flat roof at its rear and prising open a window.

The man then entered an office next to where Mr Batty’s wife and son were getting ready for work, before leaving via the same way he entered.

But, he returned minutes later as Mr Batty’s wife was leaving for work, and hid while he waited for her to leave.

He then re-entered the building and attempted to find the keys to the pub’s safe.

After failing to do so, he went downstairs into the pub to search for keys and more cash, before eventually leaving.

Mr Batty says he was only made aware of what had happened when he woke up later in the morning. He subsequently contacted the police.

He said: “It's a pretty frightening situation. My wife would have been showering in the next room while he was in the office looking for the key.

“This sort of thing usually happens in the middle of the night, not when people are getting ready for work.

“We were oblivious to it the whole time until I looked at the footage. If I had gone and confronted him and he had a knife then this could have been a completely different story.”

Mr Batty now says he is worried about a similar incident happening at the pub and has reviewed the pub’s security to look into why the alarm system did not sound.

The pub had CCTV cameras installed inside last year.

Mr Batty says that he suspects the person who carried out the burglary may have been local to the area, and hopes that someone may be able to identify him from the images.

He says that he has been given the name of someone who lives locally, which he has passed on to the police.

He added: “I have been at the pub for 23 years and never had any issues like this before.

“It needs to be sorted. People who do this are scum and we need to get them off our streets. He needs to be named and shamed.”

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: “At about 8.50am on Tuesday, police were called to reports of a burglary at a pub in Tottington. It happened at about 6.30am.

“An unknown offender had gone into the building, searched around and stole some money from within the property before making off in an unknown direction.”