The incident happened on the same day that Richard Clarke was jailed by the Royal Court for two unrelated garage shop burglaries last year.
Motor Works manager Robert Roussel discovered the latest theft when he arrived for work.
‘The outside door was damaged – it’s a uPVC door and that had split and the office door on the second floor was kicked in,’ he said.
‘It was a shock. You don’t expect it at all. It was the damage, really. Obviously the rest of it is important but when you see your property’s been damaged it’s not very nice.’
This was not the first burglary from the shop, but it has not had one for several years.
‘The last time we had some cash taken and the time before that it was cigarettes,’ said Mr Roussel.
Guernsey Police said the burglary is believed to have occurred at about 1.40am and it is thought that the offender was one man who was on foot, although it was possible he had a vehicle nearby.
Given the nature of the break-in, police said it was likely that some noise would have been made and afterwards the man ran off in the direction of the Bridge.
Thieves targeting garage shops is not a frequent occurrence in the island, but there have been several incidents in recent years.
Richard Clarke was sentenced to 11 years for offences including the burglary of Vale Service Station last year, during which he seriously assaulted staff member Jamie Marsh.
‘After Jamie got attacked we reviewed our security,’ said manager Mike Lucas. ‘The police have given us advice and hopefully nothing ever happens again like what happened to Jamie because that was horrendous.
‘We believe we’re as safe as we can be but you can never be 100% certain it will never happen to you.’
The shop at Doyle Motors was also a target of Richard Clarke, when lottery scratch cards and cigarettes were stolen.
‘Over the years we’ve had very very few problems and we put this down to a one-off,’ said managing directory Jeremy Rees.
‘But we have strengthened the door because it was kicked in. We got our local handyman to do it.’
The shop already had CCTV cameras covering the premises and there are staff working day and night, he said.
It has a heavy duty safe but there is not as much cash kept on-site overnight as there once was.
‘Most transactions are card or Apple Pay these days. There’s far less cash now. But we bank it quite regularly, three or four times a week so there’s never really much cash here.’
Anyone with any information about the Northern Motor Works burglary is asked to get in touch with DC 38 Wynn or TDC 142 Hewlett in the CID by calling 01481 222 222 or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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