Dream trip up in smoke

DREAMS shattered . . . Martin Whitmore and Tina Dearden

Camper-van blaze horror
HOPES of a dream trip across Europe are in ruins for one former Oldhamer after his treasured campervan was set on fire by vandals during a family visit.

Spain, Italy and beyond awaited Martin Whitmore (53) who planned to stage a six-month escape across the continent.

But his dreams went up in smoke as he stood and watched the blaze in his camper, shortly after four youths had been spotted running away from the vehicle.

Born in Oldham, Martin has lived with his partner Tina Dearden in France for the past 11 years, but had driven to visit relatives in Derker, parking his Peugeot four-berth Challenger on London Road.

It was in the early of hours of Thursday morning when Martin realised something was wrong. He said: “There was banging on the door from one of the neighbours, then I saw the van ablaze.

“There was a gas bottle in there so we worried about an explosion.

“The neighbour said he had thrown his jeans on and tried to chase four youths down the road.” The passenger window of the French vehicle had been smashed and the seat set alight.

Martin could do nothing but watch the plastic interior melt.

Firefighters soon arrived on the scene but it was already too late to save the vehicle.

Martin added: “It was surreal. Tina was in tears. She cried all night, it broke our hearts. But it could have been worse — we could have been in the van at the time.

“Through pure vandalism, these people have ruined what we have been planning for a year.”

Martin’s insurance for the van worth £5,000 is in France. The pair will now have to make their own way down to Cornwall to board the ferry to make their way to their home near Brittany.

The incident has astonished the former local man, who once owned a window manufacturing company in Oldham.

He said: “I love Oldham, but people don’t seem to be pulling together to combat such things.

“Some of the neighbours were telling me of similar things that have happened to them, of cars be burgled, their wheels stolen or set on fire regularly.

“People seem to accepting that this is normality.

“That’s not the Oldham I left a decade ago.

“The police and the community need to work together to let people know that this will not be tolerated.”

The engine still started on the reliable 20-year-old van as it was taken to the scrap yard the following day.

A police investigation is under way.