The owners of La Fiaba Mediterranean restaurant in the High Street, Caterham-on-the-Hill are furious with yobs who carried out two separate acts of vandalism to the outside of their premises on Christmas Eve.

At approximately 8pm on Monday 24th December, the restaurant's newly installed CCTV camera recorded a young man deliberately knocking over the 'A-board' signs as he walked by, causing damage to the hinges. A few hours later, just after midnight when the restaurant was closed, the CCTV camera recorded a group of youngsters congregating outside the premises, smoking cigarettes. In an effort to apparently show-off to the girls, a young man can be seen kicking over one of the restaurant's ornamental trees worth ?250. He then undid the ties that secured a second tree to the wall and kicked that over as well.

Co-owner of the restaurant, Paul Falkner, said: "The police think they know who these people are and I hope that we can show the CCTV images to the parents of these kids to show them what their lovely young offspring are doing. We don't take the trees in at night because they are too heavy but they are not too heavy to vandalise."

Paul explained how such thoughtless acts of vandalism can potentially have a detrimental effect on the whole community.

He said: "These people have got to realise that their actions have consequences for our community. Our community is symbiotic and if you affect one part you affect others as well. We are trying to contribute to the local neighbourhood generally by taking on youngsters for work experience, employing local people and using local suppliers. If these youngsters keep damaging local businesses then there could be no jobs in our neighbourhood for them to get.

"I would like to say 'thank you' to the Good Samaritans who put the trees back into an upright position when they came past the restaurant early on Christmas morning."