POLICE patrols have been launched in vandalism hotspots around Harwich to clamp down on crime.

A new drive to tackle vandalism has been announced in the wake of a spate of criminal damage in the town.

A pensioner has been left furious after the rear window of her car was smashed just months after she felt confident enough to drive.

Jennifer Griffiths, 77, found her silver Mitsubishi Colt vandalised by yobs after she parked it in Marine Parade, Dovercourt.

The car was parked on Thursday, April 20, along with dozens of other cars until Mrs Griffiths returned to it on Monday, April 24, to discover it damaged.

She said: “As I walked up to my car on Monday morning, I saw the back window was smashed and splintered and there was glass everywhere.

“No other car had been damaged at all on the street and there are far better and newer cars which could have been targeted by vandals.”

Her husband, Harry, 82, gave up driving at Christmas due to his age.

Mrs Griffiths, who hadn’t been behind the wheel for 20 years, took refresher lessons to get up her confidence and got her own car.

She said: “I would not park there again, but when I did leave my car there it did not cross my mind that anything would happen.

“Perhaps the people who did it could tell me why it is fun to do this to an elderly couple which robs them of their transport and needs repairing.”

After speaking to neighbours about the incident, Mrs Griffiths said one told her his car had been vandalised three times in Marine Parade.

Chief Insp Russ Cole, district police commander said he wants to clamp down on young vandals before they carry out larger offences later in life.

He said: “We have a community policing team who are looking at it.

“We look at each crime individually and will look to see if there is any CCTV footage and will look at social media sites too. We will proactively patrol the area and look at hotspots and investigate them.”

The incident comes just weeks after Harwich MP Bernard Jenkin called for action after an increase in vandalism.

He said cars and vans have been targeted by vandals who appear to have no motive other than to cause damage to people’s property.

The incidents included an arson attack on a Citroen Berlingo van in The Ridgeway at the beginning of April.

Mr Jenkin has written to Chief Insp Russ Cole calling on him to tackle the “flurry” of vandalism in Harwich.

He said he hopes police will take similar action to clamp down on vandalism as they did to tackle a spate of burglaries last autumn.