Polish car targeted in Leamington hate crime

A car with Polish number plates was vandalised and badly damaged recently, in what is seemingly a racially motivated attack.

The car was parked in the Brunswick Street area. It was the only vehicle singled out and damaged on a busy residential road.

The owner, a Warwick graduate, was away over the weekend of 8 October and returned to the vandalised vehicle.

The windscreen had been smashed, with clear shoe dents indicating it had been jumped on and kicked repeatedly.

The car is owned by the victim’s father, who had to leave it in Leamington after falling ill on a visit several months earlier; the graduate, who has decided to remain anonymous, has been using it since.

Vandalism is not covered under their insurance, meaning the family will have to pay for the damage themselves. The police were not informed at the time due to the belief they would not be able to do anything.

The victim commented: “I have been using the vehicle for the past three months, and was meant to drive it back to Poland within the next two weeks, as I have decided to get a UK car.

“Last weekend 8/9 October I was away and when I got back I found the car terribly damaged: windscreen was smashed, there were many dents on the bonnet with shoe marks, and it looked like someone was jumping on it. The car was also kicked/hit numerous times from both sides.”

They added: “It clearly happened because the car had Polish driving plates.”

Hate crime figures have soared nationally after the Brexit vote in June: there was a 41% increase in hate crimes in July of this year compared to the previous year.

In Leamington Spa this figure was even higher, with a 57% rise in July 2016 on July 2015. 8 hate crimes were reported in July 2015, and 14 in 2016.

In fact, 5468 hate crimes were logged across the UK in July 2016 alone, according to the Home Office. The number of overall hate crimes for 15/16 is up 19% on the 14/15 year, too.

Tracing common trends about crime reporting, it is likely the real number of hate crimes that have occurred could be higher.

79% of the hate crimes actually logged, however, were motivated by racial hatred, feeding into concerns that Brexit has intensified xenophobia and racism.

In August, a Polish man was killed in Essex by six teenagers after they heard him speaking his native language.