A FRUSTRATED hotel manager is still waiting for police to visit - a week after he reported a guest who smashed a staff member’s car window with a brick.

CCTV footage shows the moment the man strode over to the car, which was blocking his own vehicle, and threw the object through the driver side window. He is then seen reaching into the car and releasing the handbrake before pushing the car forward.

Although a shocked member of staff comes rushing out, the offender gets into his car and drives away.

The incident happened at the Ullswater Hotel in West Cliff Gardens, Bournemouth, on the morning of Wednesday, August 9.

And manager Mark Gavin said he is aware of similar incidents including theft and criminal damage at other hotels in the area.

“We are not the only ones,” he told the Daily Echo. “Other hotels have had the same response. We are asked to co-operate with the police, but when we do it’s a waste of time. We’re all just getting cheesed off with the lack of police response.”

Speaking about the latest incident, Mr Gavin added: “The guy who smashed the window stayed here one night. He checked out at 7.30am the next day. The chef’s car was blocking him in so we went to get him to move his car. While we were doing that, he picked up the brick and threw it at the car window.

“It was shocking. I contacted Bournemouth police station, and it took 15 minutes to get through. It’s an absolute nightmare.

“All they did was give me a crime number for insurance purposes. I phoned again on Saturday to follow it up and was told they were very busy at the moment but someone would be in touch. I still haven’t heard anything.”

Mr Gavin said police took a week to respond when a charity box was stolen from the hotel.

He added: “The police have a very hard job and I respect them. I understand they have a lack of resources, but this is pretty poor.”

Hoteliers in Bournemouth were urged to sign up to a joint police initiative called Hotel Watch earlier this year.

It has been running on an informal basis since 2015 but was formally launched in March.

The group shares intelligence to help combat crimes such as child exploitation, drug dealing and cyber fraud.

Bournemouth Central Neighbourhood Inspector Jane Kiernan said: “We prioritise all incidents based on the current assessment of threat, risk and harm. This is to ensure that we direct our resources to the most urgent incidents and to safeguard vulnerable victims. Our response to reported incidents and crimes is always subject to ongoing dynamic incidents that require immediate police attendance. There is also an increased demand on police resources over the busy summer tourist period.

“I fully appreciate the concerns raised by the victim. I would like to reassure him that we are investigating the incident and a number of details that were taken during his initial call to our control room are being followed up.” Work is also ongoing behind the scenes to identify and locate the offender.

“We will be speaking to him in due course so we can take a full statement and collect any evidence such as CCTV, if available, and to provide him with an update as to the progress of the investigation.”