MECHANICS have spoken of their shock after two cars were torched by suspected arsonists yesterday outside their garages.

Two cars were completely destroyed and one other was badly damaged after the cars were set alight at 1am on Thursday morning in Powell Road, Frizinghall.

A silver Renault Megane and a blue Ford Focus were destroyed, and the rear end of a silver Mercedes-Benz C180, parked in front of the Ford, was badly damaged.

Vehicles are usually kept within the site’s gate and fencing, but the cars had to be left outside because there was not enough room.

Phil Addy, who owns a garage at the site, said he was shocked to find out one of the cars he was looking after had been destroyed.

He said: “The Focus belongs to one of my friends, it was only in for a bit of paint work and a tidy up.

“One of my employees rang me in the morning and told me about it.

“As you can imagine the owner was in shock and was upset, he wanted to know if it was just his car that had been damaged.

“He’d only brought it in for some paint and now it’s been destroyed.

“When cars get left beyond the gate, the local kids terrorise them.

“It’s generally older cars that are left outside, but sometimes, like this one, it was just where it got left because there was no space beyond the gate.”

Mr Addy did say that levels of vandalism had dropped off recently, especially since a new owner had taken over the site and put up metal fencing.

The vandalism that normally takes place tends to be windows being smashed, he said.

“Things have got a bit better since the new owner came in , this is the only thing that has happened for a while.”

The two other damaged cars belonged to JS Garages, also based at the site.

Jakub Sawicki, owner of JS Garages, said the Megane was due to be taken for scrap soon, but his brother-in-law had been planning to sell the Mercedes.

He said the first thing he knew of the attack was when he arrived at work in the morning.

“This is kids or people who don’t like the cars being parked here,” said Mr Sawicki.

“There have been attempted fires on cars before, and people smash the windows all the time.

“With the Renault we will just get the scrappers to pick it up, but my brother-in-law is not happy about the Mercedes.

“We will have to change the whole rear end if we want to try and sell it. The repair labour costs to sort it out is all extra expense we don’t need.”

A spokesman for Shipley fire station, which attended the blaze it was a suspected arson attack.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police confirmed it is being treated as arson, and said inquiries are ongoing into the incident.

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