The owner of a Helston cafe is left facing an estimated £3,000 bill just weeks after refurbishing due to a late night attack.

Lee Spicer and his wife Lisa only celebrated the rebranding and refurbishment of Hellys Team Room in Meneage Street earlier this month, which roughly coincided with the year anniversary of the couple taking over the business.

During the early hours of Saturday, however, just hours after Helston celebrated the switching on of its Christmas lights in a well supported evening of family entertainment, things turned nasty when two windows in town were smashed within minutes of each other - one of them being at the tea room.

As a result, Lee said he spent much of Saturday clearing up broken glass, as his priority was to reopen for customers as quickly as possible.

Such was the force of the impact that glass flew approximately 12 feet into the cafe - landing all over the window display and serving area.

As a result the whole display had to be thrown away, which included cakes, teas and even local artwork, as it was no longer safe to serve or sell to the public due to glass fragments.

"It affects a lot more people than just the owner," said Lee, who added that it was his belief that "malicious force" must have been used, rather than the damage being the result of an accident, due to the thickness of the glass pane that was broken.

He estimated the total clear up cost would be in the region of £3,000 for replacement glass, graphics, the boarding up by police and loss of stock.

Lee told the Packet: "I'm very angry but it's one of those things that I hope whoever is responsible learns from.

"I believe that it was alcohol influenced, from what I heard. When they sober up and realise what they've done, I hope they learn from it and don't repeat it."

He said he and Lisa didn't leave until 10pm, having stayed open late for the switch on, with the damage then caused around 2.30am.

Lee said he was grateful to the police for arranging for the emergency boarding up of the window, as well as all the people who had tried to contact him to let him know about the damage, as the police did not have a contact number for them.

"There's a lot of local support out there that's very much appreciated," he added.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police by calling 101, quoting reference CR083684/16.

A window of the Red Lion pub was also smashed on the same night, but it is not known if this is connected to the other incident and someone has come forward to apologise for this, offering to pay for a replacement pane.

A police spokesperson confirmed that officers were called at 2.20am following reports that someone was "punching or hitting" the pub's window, after being thrown out of another pub in town. CCTV footage was now being looked at.