Council workers have thrown out a soldier's service medals - along with the rest of his belongings.

Thor Taylor, 40, placed his and his family's possessions in storage four years ago when he was having housing problems.

When he contacted the storage company to get his things back he was told they had been destroyed by order of Hastings Borough Council.

Mr Taylor, a freelance photographer from St Leonards, who sometimes works for the council, said: "It has ruined our lives. My family are traumatised and devastated with what can only be described as a bereavement."

Practically everything the Taylors had ever owned was lost, including medals and records from Mr Taylor's service in Northern Ireland, photographs of his father during Second World War and his medals, and photographs of their three children, aged between six and 11.

His wife Lynne Taylor, 48, said: "We've got no baby pictures whatsoever. We've lost everything."

Mr Taylor and his families started having housing difficulties about four years ago after his lucrative career in IT faltered and they struggled to keep up with payments on his mortgage.

Delays in securing housing benefit meant My Taylor was left homeless on occasions and his family were left to fend for themselves in bed and breakfasts.

The stress of the situation had a dramatic effect on Mr Taylor's health, which added to the problems.

Eventually the family found a new home in privately rented accommodation but ongoing problems with their landlord have meant they want to move again.

To raise funds they struck upon the idea to sell some of their possessions to raise funds.

Mr Taylor said: "I made the call and asked if we could have it back and after a couple of days of leaving messages we heard nothing.

"Then they said that last year the council ordered 35 crates to be destroyed and that our belongings could have been among them."

Mr Taylor said he could not understand how the council could have ordered the storage company to get rid of his stuff as he had kept in regular contact with the firm and had originally had a private agreement with it over storage.

A spokesman for Hastings Borough Council said: "We took storage of Mr Taylor's possessions because of his family's housing difficulties.

"The first four weeks were paid for by the council but after that he was expected to pay himself.

"We would expect goods to be taken out of storage as soon as possible. The council has been paying for the last four years for his goods to be in storage but clearly we still should not have destroyed the good without telling Mr Taylor and for that we apologise.

"We had been trying to contact him and had written to him eight times."

He added that investigations were still ongoing into what exactly went wrong.

What do you think of the way the Taylors have been treated? Leave your comments below.