A POPULAR Southampton coffee shop suffered a late night break in as thieves smashed their way in and made off with hundreds in cash.

Mettricks Tea and Coffee House in Old Town's High Street had its front door smashed in by thieves who then raided the shop just before 1am.

CCTV footage shows two people leaping over the counter top before escaping with a box containing the tips the members of staff had earned.

Now the owner of the independent cafe, which was targeted by thieves three times last year, is asking for more to be done about crime in the city centre.

Owner of Merricks, Spencer Bowman, said: "We think there were six people in total, four stayed outside and two went inside.

"They took the staff tip box and our petty cash box, is was probably only a couple of hundred pounds but they caused around £1,500 worth of damage.

"We put the tips towards everyone from Mettricks going out and doing stuff together, the tips they took were going to help pay for us going go-carting this Christmas and I was going to chip in the rest."

The raid in the early hours of Saturday morning is the fourth occasion when Mettricks' Old Town shop has fallen victim to crime as last year they were broken into three times, each time with the front door being smashed in.

Mr Bowman said: "It's a really dark corner and there is no street lighting – I have spoken to Southampton City Council about putting lights and CCTV up but whenever I speak to them they say there is not a big problem in that area.

"I named the shop after my grandmother, Brenda Mettricks, and she has said that sometimes she is too scared to walk up to Mettricks – something needs to be done.

"If we are not careful we will lose control over our own streets."

But refusing to let criminals deter them, Mettricks opened as usual at 9am Saturday morning.

Mr Bowman said: "Nothing it going to stop us from opening and we have had a really amazing response from our customers – it is really touching."

If you have any information about the break in call Hampshire Constabulary on 101 quoting the crime reference number 44150404620.

To see the shocking CCTV footage of the thief's brazen theft visit the Daily Echo's website.