AFTER nine years of being the target of vandalism, Alton car dealer Nigel Snowdon is offering a £1,000 reward to anyone with information that will lead to a conviction of the man he says has been keying his vehicles with a sharp instrument.

Nigel, who is a former RAF serviceman and who lives on Southview Rise, has described the attacks on his cars, which he has on sale on his driveway, leaving his own car on a grass verge opposite, as “something I shouldn’t have to endure”.

The first attack was in 2008 when he found of a TVR had been deeply gouged along the bonnet and side. Since then, 15 of his cars have been damaged in the same way and the latest, on January 18, saw the paint work of a Subaru scratched.

Last September, his favourite car, a red Audi 80 Convertible, had to be re-sprayed after the paintwork on the bonnet and side was damaged. He moved the car to a storage site on the Basingstoke Road where the soft top was slashed with a knife – the final straw for Nigel, who says the car has become too expensive to repair.

“I buy and sell cars from my home,” he said. “I have permission from East Hampshire District Council to do it, and I keep three in my drive that are for sale and my own car on the green verge opposite my house.

“I believe the person doing it must live in the area and attacks my vehicles on his way home. I have installed CCTV and have seen a shadowy figure but police say they can’t do anything until I get one full face.

“It is soul destroying and every time I go out in the morning I never know what damage I will find. I also keep some of my cars at a garden centre and one of those was damaged in the same way, so I feel this man must have known it was my car.”

Now Nigel has decided to take action and offer a reward in the hope someone knows the person who is committing this crime and the information will bring them to justice.

Anyone with information should call Hampshire Constabulary on 101 or Nigel on 07968 714330.