Restaurant owner faces ruin after Shorrocks blaze

Jun 18 2009 by Tom Duffy, Crosby Herald

Restaurant owner faces ruin after Shorrocks blaze

STEVE Tso woke up on Tuesday morning to learn that his dream restaurant had been burned down in an arson attack.

Friends broke the news that the Oriental Restaurant has been gutted in the blaze, which also engulfed the Ascot Group head office and swept through the function room above Shorrocks Hill nightclub, in Formby. Up to 30 fire officers spent over two hours fighting the early hours blaze.

Mr Tso, who had been celebrating after launching his state of the art Maicee Express take-away on Crosby Road North, Waterloo, on Sunday evening, was looking forward to a fully booked summer of lucrative wedding receptions and parties. He also owns the popular Tso San restaurant on South Road, Waterloo.

Today he fears losing his home to the bank, and is preparing to make hard working staff redundant.

The hard working family man who was born in China explained how he had re- mortgaged his house to invest £200,000 in the Formby restaurant, and is now facing a bleak future.

He said: “The first attack at Shorrocks Hill earlier this year was bad enough, and my business was not directly damaged in that one. My staff even fought the flames, and called the emergency services.

“I re-mortgaged my house to make this restaurant a success. The Oriental was recently valued at £600,000, and I poured in £30,000 on marketing the restaurant last year. The Formby business is probably gone now. How can you tempt people to come and spend money when there is all this going on? I am going to have let staff go. My restaurant is a crime scene, and the whole site looks badly affected by the blaze.”

At the time of the incident the restaurant was closed and no-one was injured.

A police spokesman said: “Detectives believe this was a targeted attack and are investigating whether it is linked to previous incidents in the area.”

The Ascot Group head office and Shorrocks Hill are both owned by Crosby businessman Terry Riley, whose family and business interests have been subject of a number of gun and petrol bomb attacks in recent weeks.

Witnesses should contact Copy Lane CID on 0151 709 6010 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”