THE owner of a dessert parlour in Bicester town centre is desperately calling on the police to take action against youths who have been harassing him and his staff.
Although business has been good, the couple say that over the last three months youngsters have been coming to the shop every evening shouting abuse and damaging their cafe.
Last Wednesday night, the problem reached new heights after Gagan and a member of staff were attacked.
He said: "It happened at about 8pm. Around 14 youths attacked us. First, they dropped my sign boards and I said to them, 'why you do you do that? Every time you damage my property', and they all started arguing. They were carrying whiskey bottles and threw them at us. They used a wooden stick.
"They broke one of our windows and smashed our sign board outside. My staff member was assaulted - he has a cut on his finger and eye and said a girl punched him too. I have a black eye.
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"The police came after it all happened. We're really in shock and feel let-down by the police."
With the cafe closing at 11pm, Gagan says his employees do not feel safe working at night and has even had staff quit because of the problem.
He added: "I used to have two women working for us as well, but they left because of that. And now that my staff member - who we hired one month ago - has been injured, I don’t think he'll stay with us after all of this.
"I don’t think anyone would like to work in this environment. "
Gagan reported the incident to Thames Valley Police and the force put a Section 35 dispersal order in place for the town centre on Thursday for 24 hours.
The force also put a Section 34 dispersal order in place from Friday to Sunday which resulted in 12 Section 35 banning notices.
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But the cafe owner feels this is not good enough.
"The police know those responsible because they are always here drinking, giving people a hard time and playing music," Gagan said.
"It's ridiculous and it's getting out of control. I don't understand why the police don't arrest them."
Sergeant Gavin Staniland, of the Bicester and Kidlington Neighbourhood Team, said: “The offences that have been reported to Thames Valley Police are currently under investigation, including the incident at The Harvest Café, and we are focused on bringing the perpetrators to justice.
“As part of our approach to seek a long term resolution, we will explore all available options including but not limited to acceptable behaviour contracts and criminal behaviour orders.
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“We also have two dedicated PCSOs for the town centre while the other PCSOs will conduct high visibility patrols in the daytime and evenings to reassure the public and disrupt any anti-social behaviour.
“We are also working with Cherwell District Council to get a Public Space Protection Order for Pioneer Square, which will have a significant impact on anti-social behaviour as it will give us the power to target any groups that are likely to be anti-social and can be dispersed by the council or police."
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