The final straw

Christine Clayton, aged 60, is calling for a police crackdown after her wheelchair was pinched and four windows were broken in an attack on her empty South Yorkshire bungalow.

The wheelchair, which was left outside when Christine and her family fled floodwaters for the second time in June, was taken the same night.

Now she says she regularly sees it being pushed about and ridden by thugs.

Christine, of Cliff Road in Darfield, Barnsley, who has had a stroke and suffers from arthritis, is living in a cramped one-bedroom flat on nearby Woodhall Road, with her disabled husband Robert, 53, and his blind grandmother Margaret Wilks, 93, who has terminal cancer.

Their disabled son Robert, 20, is staying in a donated caravan outside.

All four family members use wheelchairs, one of which - an electric version - was ruined by water and is not covered by insurance.

Christine said: “It breaks my heart to see them riding up and down in my wheelchair outside my own home.

“I see it quite a few days, they have had it all over Darfield by all accounts, and from the look of it it’s not worth having back.

“The police know who the ringleaders are but no-one seems to do anything about it. The kids are in control. The police need to crack down. I know some elderly residents simply don’t want to return to Cliff Road.

“If you try to speak to these kids they get the police and say you’re harassing them and they make things up. And you can’t speak to their parents because your windows would be gone. You just have to curb your tongue. My life is a living hell at the moment. We lost so much in the floods because, being a bungalow, we had nowhere to move it to.”

Insp Glyn Bates, of Wombwell Safer Neighbourhood Team, said officers would ring Mrs Clayton to deal directly with her complaint.

He added: “This incident will be fully investigated. Fortunately it is an isolated incident. There has not been any looting following the flooding. People should be reassured we are working to ensure any empty properties remain safe.”