Vandals damage van used to take disabled to scuba diving centre
A DIVING centre that helps disabled and injured members of the military has been hit by a second wave of vandalism.
The van used to transport service personnel is off the road after a side window was smashed at the weekend.
Martin Weddell co-owner of the Divecrew centre in Crowthorne has put up a reward to find the vandals who he described as “completely mindless.”
Staff are now using their own cars to ferry people and equipment around for the centre which is due to launch a second base in Guilford.
“We opened the centre at 8.45am on the Sunday morning to find some vandal had smashed our red van window,” said Martin.
“Both of our dive centre vans are in high demand at the centre not just for servicing PADI Courses but also the charity work we undertake.
“We do a lot in the community for charity with the pinnacle being working with the injured British Troops and our work with Deptherapy.
Some irresponsible individual has now put the van out of action and cost the centre money. I hope the individual responsible is feeling really proud of themselves.”
Divecrew is the UK’s only Gold Star IDC Centre and has been praised for the work it does with injured service personnel.
“They often suffer terribly with post traumatic stress disorder and we recently worked with a triple amputee,” added Martin.
“They tell us that when they are in the water they feel able to control their stress levels. That is why the work we do is so important and for some mindless vandals to do what they did makes us really angry.”
He said a local tradesman has offered a free replacement window after hearing about the incident on social media but the centre will need to pay for extra CCTV.
Martin appealed to anyone with information to contact the police or the Crowthorne centre.
“If you are the individual concerned who caused the damage I would like to meet you face to face to find out why you would commit such an act, affecting the work of small business working in the community and with charities.”