Vandals wreck man’s first car (From Ledbury Reporter)

Vandals wreck man’s first car

5:50pm Saturday 22nd September 2012 in Ledbury By Robert Hale

A YOUNG man’s first car was wrecked by “mindless” vandals while he was visiting the Malvern Hills.

Matthew Francis, aged 22, of Ansty, near Coventry, left his VW Polo parked last Saturday while he and friends camped nearby.

They were woken up the next day by a Malvern Hills Conservators warden, who told them the car had been vandalised, with all the windows smashed. As previously reported in your Worcester News the incident was one of a series of attacks that night in Swinyard Hill car park and nearby Castlemorton.

Mr Francis said: “It was just vandalism. They didn’t even break into the glovebox where I’d locked the stereo. I’d had that car for five or six years and done a lot of work on it. I’d got it just how I wanted it. These things happen in the Coventry area, where we are from, but you come to Malvern to get away from all that.

Mr Francis’s father, Ian, said: “He’d worked on it and made it look great, but it is a 17-year-old Polo and it is a write-off so all that work is wasted and now he doesn’t have a car. To add insult to injury, he couldn’t get towed home because his policy covered breakdown but not vandalism. We visit Malvern quite frequently, and it is not the place you expect this sort of thing.”

Councillor Phil Grove, responsible for community safety at Malvern Hills District Council , said: “It is very unfortunate these incidents have happened.

“However, we would like to reassure people that incidents like this are extremely rare. Not only is Malvern already one of the safest districts in the country, but crime is decreasing in the district. The district council works with the police to ensure this area is safe and to reduce the already low crime levels.”

Eight cars in Church Street, Castlemorton, and two in Swinyard Hill car park were attacked.

PC Sara Read said: “The cars had their wing mirrors snapped, been kicked, had windows smashed and wipers bent. This is a mindless act of vandalism and we need to find the person or people responsible.”

Anyone with information should call PC Read on 0300 3333000, quoting 146S 160912, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.