Melbourne hospitality crime: Award-winning chef Tinee Suntivatana reveals brutal toll of break-ins and attacks

Award-winning Melbourne chef Sutinee “Tinee” Suntivatana should be channelling her energy into menus, matcha creations and the next food trend.

Instead, she is worrying about thieves, CCTV, smashed glass and whether her staff will make it through their shifts unharmed.

Her five businesses, which employ almost 100 people, have been broken into at least seven times in recent years.

On one occasion, the hungry thieves even planned to steal dessert.

“They tried to take the cake as well, but they didn’t,” Ms Suntivatana said.

“They took the whole cake from the fridge and then left it. I think they forgot.

“They took the POS system, the iPad, the phone. Then they came back again with their friends.”

The bizarre episode would almost be comical if it was not part of a relentless run of crime that has battered Ms Suntivatana’s hospitality venues, injured her staff and cost her tens of thousands of dollars.

Behind the glass cabinets of immaculate pastries and Instagrammable desserts, the 47-year-old has spent years dealing with broken doors, stolen property, police reports and ever-increasing security.

Her experience reflects a much broader crime problem confronting Victoria’s hospitality industry.

Crime Statistics Agency figures reveal 6894 criminal incidents were recorded at restaurants and fast-food premises in the year to March.

While that was down on the previous year, it was 45 per cent higher than four years earlier.

Break-ins soared 75 per cent over that period, from 966 to 1693, while theft increased 57 per cent and assaults climbed by a third.

A similar pattern is evident at licensed premises, where 8100 criminal incidents were recorded in the past year – almost 60 per cent more than in 2022.

Ms Suntivatana now braces for the familiar message that another one of her venues has been robbed.

Humble Rays, which she opened a decade ago in Carlton, has been broken into five times in recent years, with thieves forcing their way through front and rear entrances in search of cash and goods.

Her artisan bakery, Tori’s, in the CBD has also been hit.

“They just smash the door, unlock the door and then just come in, try to find cash, the tip jars,” she said.

After the attack, Ms Suntivatana and her husband upgraded locks, added security and sought quotes for more CCTV and alarms.

“We don’t have a choice,” she said.

But before the planned upgrades could be completed, the venue was targeted again.

“How come these people came back again?” she said.

“They broke the door … within two weeks.”

Ms Suntivatana estimates the break-ins, repairs, stolen property and security have cost her as much as $40,000 in recent years, while insurance premiums continue to climb.

“You have to pay insurance more and more every year, and sometimes it’s not worth it to claim insurance,” she said.

“Just fixing the front door at the cafe costs $8000.

“And then you have to do it twice a year.”

The Hatted chef is also constantly worried about the safety of her staff.

Last year, a man entered her Carlton co-working cafe, Midday, and became aggressive towards staff before barging behind the bar and taking bottles of booze.

CCTV footage obtained by The Nightly captures the confrontation escalating as staff try to deal with the man.

He suddenly grabs a glass water bottle and hurls it at the young manager’s head at close range.

The bottle shatters on impact, leaving the worker bleeding heavily from a head wound before he was taken to hospital for stitches.

The attacker can be heard shouting abuse before casually walking out of the venue.

“He says he’s OK, but to be honest, no one is OK,” Ms Suntivatana said.

“No one is okay.

“It is so bad. It has happened multiple times.”

Other employees have been caught up in random attacks away from work.

One was punched in the face in the city during the day when someone tried to steal his phone, while another was assaulted waiting for a tram after finishing work at the bar late at night.

Ms Suntivatana believes much of the offending is random and opportunistic and does not blame police.

“I believe they work really hard,” she said.

“There’s so much crime and I think they feel exhausted as well.”

What frustrates her is that business owners are forced to absorb the financial loss while pursuing compensation can mean more time, expense and stress.

It comes as hospitality operators are already battling rising wages, rent, utilities, insurance and food costs.

“The profit is very thin these days,” she said.

“The cost of everything is up.

“For me, I have to get up and just do things, fix things, fix all the problems.”

A recent Victorian Trades Hall Council survey of more than 600 hospitality workers found 53 per cent had felt unsafe at work, rising to 68 per cent among those working late-night shifts.

The report identified customer violence and aggression among the risks confronting workers and warned those working alone could be particularly vulnerable to abuse, violence, theft and robbery.

The Victorian Government last year introduced new criminal offences specifically protecting hospitality and other customer-facing workers from assaults, threats and abusive behaviour, with the most serious worker assault offence carrying up to five years behind bars.

For Ms Suntivatana, dealing with crime consumes time and energy she should be spending on the businesses she has spent almost two decades building.

Born in Bangkok, she moved to Melbourne in 2006 as an international student and worked in kitchens including at the Grand Hyatt before starting her own venture.

She opened Humble Rays in 2016 and Tori’s in 2021. She later opened a second Tori’s and launched the restaurant and workspace, now known as Midday, along with a basement bar and event space. The entrepreneur also opened vegan gelato shop Sugar Rays.

Her venues have won industry recognition, including an Australian Good Food Guide Chef’s Hat when Midday operated as Regale.

“This is such a waste of time,” she said of dealing with crime.

“My job is planning the new menus, what’s trending, doing Instagram, doing TikTok.

“Now I have to call the insurance and call the bank. It really drains my energy.”

Her frustration boiled over online last month when she asked her more than 20,000 Instagram followers: “Melbourne, are we really going to live like this?”

She described small business owners repeatedly repairing damage, adding cameras and spending more money, only to wonder whether they would be hit again.

“But why should the responsibility always fall on the victim?” she wrote.

“We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking to feel safe. We are asking for accountability. We are asking for something to change.”

Three weeks later, Ms Suntivatana posted about “losing hope” as a small business owner.

“What slowly breaks that spirit is when the same problems keep happening and small business owners feel they have to deal with them alone,” she wrote.

“Instead of spending our energy thinking, ‘How can I improve my business? How can I bring more customers in? How can I create something better?’ we are thinking, ‘Will someone break in again? Will someone steal from us? Will someone cause trouble? Will my staff be safe at work?’

“That is exhausting.”

Ms Suntivatana is not alone.

Brunswick East chef Hari Soni was caught up in a frightening attack last year when he confronted a machete-wielding would-be car thief with a chair outside a Lygon Street restaurant.

Mr Soni said he feared for his life and immediately thought of his family.

But Ms Suntivatana is committed to keeping her businesses running in Melbourne.

“We are small business owners. We need support from the police and government,” she said.

“We pay tax. We want some safety.

“That is the bare minimum we should get – to feel safe walking into the city, going to work and sleeping at night.”