More than £85k worth of gin and vodka stolen in raid at Yorkshire Dales Distillery

More than £85,000 worth of gin and vodka have been stolen from a small craft distillery in North Yorkshire over the weekend.

Around 5,000 bottles were taken in the raid at Yorkshire Dales Distillery in Catterick Garrison which owner Tony Brotherton says is "six months' worth of stock" at the minute.

Mr Brotherton - who set up the business with his wife Sarah five years ago after leaving the Army - said: "I couldn't believe it. You don't want to believe what you're seeing."

The stock was in one of three shipping containers outside the distillery, which had been forced open and the contents stolen.

On making the discovery on Sunday (6 March), Mr Brotherton told ITV Tyne Tees, "Looking inside to see nothing. I struggle to put it in to words."

He added: "It was sickening."

He's now hoping to find urging anyone who spots the brand being sold in an "unusual place" at an "unusual price" to get in touch with the police.

Writing on Facebook, Yorkshire Dales Distillery said: "As you can imagine, this has caused costly damage and a significant loss of stock which has taken months to carefully craft and is valued at tens of thousands of pounds.

"We have spent five years building this small family business and having worked extremely hard to get through two years of the pandemic, while looking after our staff and customers.

They added: "We are struggling to understand the mindset behind a callous and destructive raid such as this."

North Yorkshire Police has asked for anybody who might have seen anything suspicious over the weekend to get in touch.

They are asking the public to be on the lookout for of the products "any of the products being sold in an unusual location or circumstances which don't seem right".