A carer from Stevenage has said he was stunned to find the Motability car, which his wife is reliant on to get out and about, had been vandalised.

%image(15638650, type="article-full", alt="Norman Phillips and wife Rosamund whose adapted car was vandalised outside their house. Picture: DANNY LOO")

Norman Phillips and his wife of 46 years Rosamund’s Citroen Berlingo is paid for via the Motability Scheme for people receiving the higher rate of disability benefit Personal Independence Payment, due to her having multiple sclerosis.

Ros – as she is known – has had MS for 35 years and was due to attend the New QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City for a long-awaited appointment to assess her pain yesterday.

However before the appointment, Norman saw the windscreen had been smashed.

The 66-year-old told the Comet: “At first I thought it was ice on the car but no some mindless idiot had smashed the window.

%image(15638652, type="article-full", alt="The smashed windscreen. Picture: DANNY LOO")

“Ros had been waiting for her appointment to help her pain and now won’t be seen until the end of the month.

“We have lived here for five years and you can see it’s an area of supported living where people need extra help, the car is clearly for a wheelchair user yet they have smashed the windscreen. We are stunned that someone would do this.”

“We think there have been other cars vandalised in the area.

“On one level, if its a gang of vandals doing it to anyone, it means it’s not personal – but it’s the frustration that comes with it.”

%image(15638653, type="article-full", alt="The Phillips' said you can see the car is for a person with disabilities, so they are "stunned" someone would vandalise it. Picture: DANNY LOO")

Ros – who is 69 and regularly goes out in the car on shopping trips and to go to an art group at The Oval – is stuck at home until the windscreen is fixed, which they have told will be tomorrow. Norman – who also cares for his mother – said he had to pay a £50 excess charge to get the windscreen fixed.

He said: “I’m now going to get CCTV and signs put in, we want to do all we can so it doesnt happen again – it’s been such a disaster.”

Police are investigating an incident of criminal damage to a vehicle in Stevenage. Between 7.30pm on Wednesday, October 31 and 7.25am on Thursday, November 1, damage was caused to a silver Citroen Berlingo in Blackberry Mead.

“The front windscreen was smashed.

“Anyone who saw what happened, or has information about the incident, should call police on 101, quoting crime reference 41/51815/18.