Wall falls on car at Dereham

A Dereham man woke up after Christmas Day to find his car buried and battered by a collapsed wall.Bus driver Tony Newsham's workday transport Vauxhall Astra was safely parked outside his house late at 10.

COLLAPSE DRAMA: A man woke up after Christmas Day to find his car buried and battered by a collapsed wall.

Bus driver Tony Newsham's Vauxhall Astra was safely parked outside his house at Toftwood late on December 25.

But on Boxing Day morning the 14-year-old vehicle looked as if it had been in the ring with a prize fighter.

Body panels had been bashed with bricks, glass was broken and wing mirrors were smashed.

Mr Newsham said police thought the 6ft-high wall, part of a maintenance company's compound, had been weakened by the recent sub-zero temperatures, resulting in its overnight collapse in Strasbourg Way.

He had moved there two months ago.

Mr Newsham said the car, which was in a communal parking area, had got "thousands of dents in it", but matters could have been worse if he had been standing there at the time or children had been playing nearby.

He was waiting until after the festive break to find out from compound owners Amber Management, of Hertfordshire, what was going to happen about the drama.

On Tuesday, the firm said its property manager would look into the collapse when he was back in the office yesterday and that it would be in touch with Mr Newsham.

Mr Newsham has had to hire a car to get to his bus depot for work.

He drives Dereham-based Konectbus's number five service between the Longwater estate at Costessey and the centre of Norwich.

"I had only just spent �500 on the car to get it through its MoT," he said.