Decant Wine and Cheese Deli forced to close after car smashes through the front of the building

A Bedford business has been forced to close after a car smashed through the front of its building.

Decant Wine and Cheese Deli on Castle Lane has been forced to cancel bookings - and says it does not know when it will be able to reopen.

Owner Sophie Robinson explained that she "had the worst call" at around 7pm on Monday (November 8) when she was told that someone had driven into the front of Decant and taken out the front bar.

But she said she was thankful no one had been inside or it could have been "a different story".

Sophie said: "We have fantastic neighbours and have to do a massive shout to FatCap Smokehouse our wonderful neighbours for their help and Kieran Robinson for coming out in the freezing cold to secure the premises before any passers by helped themselves to our wine and also our neighbour Keith for alerting us all and checking no one was hurt."

A spokesman for Bedfordshire Police said: "Officers attended and a 17-year-old boy was detained and questioned in connection with an aggravated vehicle taking.

"The road was temporarily closed for the recovery of the vehicle."

Until the business can reopen, Sophie has set up a takeaway option online and is hoping to open a pop up in the near future.

Sophie added: "We will be attending at home wine tasting experiences too.

"We are also working with other local independent businesses to utilise space to enable a Decant pop up - nothing finalised as of yet."

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the police on 101 or by visiting the online reporting centre, quoting reference number 40/59968/21.