£1000 reward for Lanark vendetta vandal

As the former Lanark Registry Ofice, this building has great sentimental value to many local families.

The reward is being offered by today’s main occupier of the building, property firm EBS Group and it is assuming that the attacker has a grudge either against them or one of the other three firms sharing the building.

Whatever, EBS’s head Richard McCann revealed that the acts of revenge are misdirected as none of the firms occupying the building actually own it, it being the property of a pension fund.

He told the Gazette: “We have CCTV footage of both the attacks which we have handed over to the police for inspection.”

The police confirmed to the Gazette this week that they are, indeed, studying the footage closely.

The footage shows that, interestingly, both incidents happened at almost exactly the same time of day.

Said Richard: “The first attack happened at 7.41pm on November 18 when a figure on Hope Street casually walks up to the entrance of the building, goes into a carrier bag and throws lemonade bottles filled with gloss white paint and thinners at the frontage of the building and then makes off.”

He and his colleagues were hoping that this was a `one-off’ incident but this hope was dashed just after the start of the New Year.

“Almost exactly the same thing happened at 7.44pm on Sunday, January 4, the only difference this time being that the paint is contained in coffee jars.”

He said that cleaning the sandstone frontage of the building after the first attack cost £3000; the clean-up bill after the second incident was just a bit less as the damage was discovered before the paint has fully soaked into the stonework.

Whatever, Richard is determined that the person responsible be brought to book and has made the offer of a thousand pound reward for information which leads to a conviction.

He went on: “It was obvious even from the first incident that this wasn’t just a casual act of spontaneous vandalism.

“Someone went to the bother of filling bottles with paint and thinners and then deliberately targeted this building, which, by the way, is a historically Listed one.”

He said that, after the repeat of the November incident, he decided that `enough is enough’ and he would put up the reward to catch the person responsible.

Anyone with any information which might lead to the capture of the vandal can contact Lanark Police via the 101 number or, in complete confidence, via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

It is thought likely that, given the early evening timings of the attacks, someone in Hope Street would have noticed something suspicious going on.