Vintage car racers gassed and then robbed in their campervan

♦ A trio of vintage car racers from Britain have described being gassed and robbed while camping near Monaco.

Jim Timms, 81, had taken his grandsons, Ben Wardle and Ricky Tavis, both 30, to Monaco to race their 1961 Formula One Cooper.

On their journey home, they had camped overnight near Montpellier when they were robbed. Mr Timms had his watch taken from under his pillow while a wallet, cards and money were also stolen.

“We were all gassed,” said Mr Timms, from Whitminster, Glos. “Ben raised the alarm at about 4am. He had to really shout to wake us up. Ben was sick straight away and we all had a dry mouth and a nasty taste in our mouth when we woke up.

“Other people need to be aware that this sort of thing is happening.”

Mr Timms said he called the French police, but “they didn’t understand us and they never came out”.

“When we came home, we researched what had happened and it is not as rare as you may think,” he added. “We believe that they released the gas through the vent in the camper to knock us out.”