A PUB that has changed hands twice in a matter of months is at the centre of a police investigation.

Officers are carrying out enquiries into allegations that a number of items have been stolen from the Scape House Inn at Scapegoat Hill.

The High Street pub is now being run by Chris Kelly and his wife Theresa.

Mr Kelly, 40, took over after getting a call from his father-in-law, who runs The Railway pub in Marsden.

He said: “He had been contacted by the brewery saying they needed someone to run the Scape House.

“When we got there the door was wide open and the gate was blowing in the wind.

“A number of locals had contacted the brewery to say that there had been a seven-and-a-half tonne truck outside with furniture being loaded onto the back.

“Tables and chairs had disappeared and cooking equipment and kitchen utensils were also gone.”

The Kellys took over the management about a month ago, just three months after the previous bosses had moved in.

David Bingham, 67, and 18-year-olds Joshua Charlesworth and Richard Walker reopened the pub in December.

It also emerged that publican Stuart Smith was working at the pub.

Smith, of Newlands Farm, Warley, Halifax, was punished last May for allowing people to light up at the College Arms in Queensgate, Huddersfield.

He was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £2,500 costs.

Smith told the Examiner his involvement with the Scape House ended at the end of last year.

He said: “David Bingham gave notice to the brewery that he was going to leave earlier this year, but I stopped being involved ages ago.”

Before Mr Bingham had taken over as the licensee, the Scape House had been without permanent management since July.

Business partners Stewart Humphries and Matthew Harper, who had been running the pub before that, had to call time because of financial problems.

Mr Kelly said he was struggling to turn the pub’s fortunes around.

“It’s doing all right but it is extremely slow,” he said.

“I’m working at the wholesale market during the mornings and working in the pub in the afternoon.

“It’s extremely tiring and it’s not ideal. I want to be able to run the pub full time, but just can’t afford to at the moment.”

Marston’s brewery, which owns the Scape House, said it could not comment on the theft allegations “due to an ongoing police investigation.”

Insp Mark Trueman, from The Valleys Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “Enquiries are ongoing into a possible theft at the premises.”