£18k payout for dad after police wreck car

A father-of-two has been paid thousands of pounds after his stolen car was held at a police pound for nearly four years and stripped of many of its parts.

Jeremy Pascoe, 43, has been given almost £18,000 in legal costs and compensation by Thames Valley Police for the damage caused to his Land Rover Discovery while under their care.

Mr Pascoe's four-year-old vehicle, then worth £8,900, was stolen from outside his home in Cobham in June 2004.

It was recovered by West Midlands Police and handed over to Thames Valley Police as evidence in a car theft case.

But the 43-year-old was not allowed to retrieve his vehicle until January last year because of a dispute over ownership and was shocked to discover it had been "completely stripped" of parts.

Mr Pascoe won a court action against the police force at Oxford County Court in September last year but was only given costs this month.

"It has been ridiculous how long this has lasted," he said. "I think most people would have given up a long time ago but we were determined to carry on going.

"It's great to have a new car but my overall feeling is that it shouldn't have gone on for this long.

"All we wanted from the very start was for the people who stripped our car to be held accountable, our car back and an apology.

"But all we got was a car that had to be scrapped, no apology and the people who stripped our car have got away with it."

"We have been put through a lot of stress so we are glad it's all over but it does still bug me that no one has been held accountable for our car being stripped."

The commercial music company director said he will be writing to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to look into his case.

Mr Pascoe and his wife Rachel, plus daughters Emily, five, and Phoebe, two, had to hire a car for over four and a half years – at a cost of £500 a month – during the saga.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said Mr Pascoe was paid £12,000 in damages and £5,5087 in costs.

He said: "It is regrettable that damage was caused to Mr Pascoe's car whilst in the care of Thames Valley Police, and we apologise for this."