A dumped vehicles smashed into a family's car and wrecked it after vandals let off the handbrake.

Maria and Dale Turner's Ford Mondeo was written off when the Volvo estate crashed into its front wing.

Mrs Turner of Nuthurst Close, Whitehawk, Brighton, says she had telephoned Brighton and Hove City Council at least six times asking for the dumped car to be removed.

The Volvo, which did not have a registered owner, was left in the close where the Turner family have lived for 12 years about seven weeks ago.

Once the school holidays started, it attracted youngsters.

Mrs Turner, who works in catering at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, said: "We're the losers in this.

"The kids were playing on the Volvo and let the handbrake off and it hit my car.

"We took it to a garage to get an estimate for repair work and were told it was not worth it. It is insured but we would have to pay the excess of about £200."

Mrs Turner's husband, a roofer, had to take days off work to take the car into the garage and sort out paper work, losing two days' pay.

Mother-of-two Mrs Turner said she had called the council again on Friday, August 1. The crash happened two days later, on Sunday evening.

She said: "I phoned the council every day last week.

"I was told it would be removed. This is the second car of mine that has been written off.

"I had a BMW which was wrecked by youngsters who drove into it and then ran off.

"If these vehicles are not registered to an owner, they should be towed away immediately."

A council spokesman said: "The car was reported on Friday, July 18.

"We went out on July 22, a gap of one working day, and put the statutory seven-day notice on it and tried to find the owner without success.

"A working week later, on July 28, we asked our contractor to remove it, and they have three days to do so. This appears not to have happened and we'll be looking into that."