'Stolen' caravan had been crushed

A Northern Irish woman has discovered that her missing caravan had been towed away and crushed by the Newtownabbey Council's Environmental Health department after it had mistakenly been reported as abandoned.

Leanne Evans has been preoccupied with a hospital stay for her three-year old son, Je-maine. The council say that they had put a sticker on the caravan, which was parked in a car-park close to her former home, asking the owner to come forward, but they had a duty to remove unclaimed vehicles, which were subject to vandalism.

Mrs Evans told the Newtown Abbey times: "When we found out that it was gone we phoned the police as we thought it had been stolen. They made some inquiries and came back to us to say that the council had taken it. I couldn't believe it!

"It's not so much the caravan, but all the stuff that was in it. My son's bike, his toys, a CD player, table, chairs - I spent £500 kitting the thing out. A blind man could have seen that it wasn't abandoned. I was gutted. I only bought it last summer and we'd only got away in it once."

A spokesperson for the council's Environmental Health team told the newspaper: "The council have a legal responsibility to respond to complaints of abandoned vehicles and ensure they are removed and disposed of where appropriate. In this instance it is our understanding that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive had attempted to trace the caravan's owner on several occasions before council became involved."

15/05/2008 13:27:36