THE father of a young woman who had her new car badly keyed while parked in a quite residential road in Alton, has criticised the police over their handling of the incident.

And he says he will pursue it further if he can see no evidence of action to track down the culprit.

The man, who lives in Newark, Nottinghamshire, but who doesn’t wish to be named for fear of reprisals on his daughter, has a son in the police force and a sister who is a solicitor. He helped his daughter buy the car, an Audi A1, after she decided to move south to be with her boyfriend. This was three months ago and, since then, she has had her iPhone 6 stolen from work and now her car has been keyed.

The incident happened sometime overnight between Friday, October 28, and Saturday, October 29, when the car was parked in the Normandy Street area of town.

It was devastating for the 23 year old who, as a trainee dental nurse, had paid out all her savings and taken out a loan to pay for a reliable vehicle so that she could safely drive the 200 miles to visit her family in Nottinghamshire.

She did all the right things, calling 101 when she discovered the damage to her car on Saturday morning and informing the police that she had some evidence, including a dated receipt for food purchased at nearby pub, found next to the car. Furthermore, there are two CCTV cameras adjacent to the site where the car was parked.

But according to her father, the response from the duty officer at Alton police station was far from positive, no details were taken and she was not issued with a leaflet giving ‘Information for Victims of Crime’ as police procedures state she should have been.

Instead she received an e-mail providing her with a crime reference number but stating that the police would not be investigating the crime as there were “currently no further lines of enquiry. However, should your crime be linked to other crimes or our investigation teams need to contact you they may be in touch”.

The e-mail did include an online link to the victim care pack.

Failing to understand why, when a report on the local police website, dated October 14 clearly states that since September 11 “there has been a few more cars damaged overnight” and that while there is currently no particular pattern “this issue remains a priority for us in the period from October to December 2016”, the young car owner determined to try to get some form of explanation.

An e-mail to East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds said that if she remained unhappy with the response from the police then she should contact the police complaints department.

A similar letter to Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Michael Lane failed to elicit a response, despite a pledge on his website that his focus would be on making “you, your family and your community safer”.

His priority being to work “to make sure that victims are at the heart of the criminal justice system and work with partners to continue improvements that further support victims”.

Having asked the police and crime commissioner for a response to the concerns expressed by both father and daughter regarding this case, a statement reads: “The commissioner cannot comment on operational matters, this rests with the chief constable and Hampshire Constabulary.

“In order to seek improvement in the service to the public, we have passed the concerns to the relevant officer at Hampshire Constabulary.”

A statement from the police confirms a report of criminal damage to an Audi A1 parked on Normandy Street in Alton between 5.30pm on Friday, October 28, and 7.30am the following morning.

It continues: “This is not currently being linked to any other incidents reported to us in the area, and based upon the information provided to us there are no viable lines of enquiry to follow.

“If further information is provided to us or similar incidents are reported, this position could change, however at the current time this is not an active investigation.”

The father begs to differ, pointing out that there should at least be CCTV footage.

He cannot believe the apparent lack of interest following his daughter’s cry for help.

He said: “I am appalled by the response from Alton police and from the police commissioner. If you put pledges and information onto your website, you need to act on them.”

The result, he said, was that his daughter did not feel safe in her newly-adopted town.

The police statement points out that: “If a member of the public has concerns about the way that an investigation has been handled, we would urge them to consider raising these to our professional standards department by following advice that can be found on our website.”