Disabled driver criticises car vandals

Tom Yendell, 39, has no arms and uses his feet to steer his four-wheel drive vehicle, using floor mechanisms.

He spent his childhood in Bexhill and made the front page of The Observer in 1980 as one of the first thalidomide babies in Britain to pass a driving test.

Tom regularly visits his parents and sisters in the town, driving the 100 miles from his home in Alton, Hampshire with his wife and children Joseph, 11 and Holly, six.

He visited his parents, Margaret and Jack Yendell, of Bolebrook Road, at Christmas.

During his stay the window of his car, parked in Bolebrook Road, was smashed and the radio stolen.

Tom and his family returned to Bexhill last weekend for his mother s 80th birthday. Again Tom s car was broken into and the replacement radio stolen. This time thieves wrecked the dashboard of his car.

An angry Tom rang us to say: "I m shocked at how much crime has come to sleepy Bexhill.

"It is so sad. I love the town because everything seems to slow down here. But crime is on the increase and that is the last thing the elderly who live here should have to put up. It puts a dampner on everything."