We paid £80 for Heathrow’s ‘secure’ car park but came back to find £1,500 damage

A COUPLE who parked in a “safe and secure” car park at Heathrow came back from holiday to find their £60,000 Land Rover Defender with a missing wheel.

Andrew Furber and his wife Linda from Milton Keynes paid £81.60 to park their car for three days at the long-stay parking at Heathrow airport.

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But when they found out that their spare wheel was missing, they felt devastated.

“We felt very distressed because we worked really hard all our life to have a nice car, and it seems that anybody can take anything.

“We went through insurance, but we still had to pay £650 for the excess to get the wheel replaced.

“Heathrow airport doesn’t want to take responsibility, and those wheels cost £1,500.”

Staff at the airport told the couple that this happens often, but crooks usually steal catalytic converters.

“Members of the staff at the airport already knew that crooks had stolen our back wheel,” Linda added.

Linda thinks that allowing people to access the parking for free is increasing the number of thefts.

“People can access the parking for 29 minutes without paying, so they can steal whatever they want without even being charged

“The police told us that there are no CCTV cameras where we had parked our car.”

However, the couple – who owned a security company – claimed that they spotted a camera next to their car.

Linda added: “We feel that the company and the police don’t want to help us.

“I received an email from Heathrow airport saying they can give us the CCTV footage of me entering and leaving the car park, but that’s not the footage we want.

“We want the CCTV footage of the people stealing our wheel.”

The couple said that the company still hadn’t refunded them.

Heathrow airport said: “Sorry to hear about this experience. Our customer service team are in the process of responding to this passenger, and I believe they’re having the cost of their parking refunded.”

It comes after The Sun revealed that around 80 holidaymakers had their motors stolen after leaving them with Heathrow valet company Terminal Universal.

Met Police have found 70 of them, with some discovered in a field in Chertsey, Surrey, around 15 miles from the airport.

A 25-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of theft and released pending further enquiries.

The Sun also revealed that Douglas Peel, 66, from Dorset, also returned to Heathrow from a two-week holiday in Thailand to find the catalytic converter missing from his £20,000 Honda Jazz.