Family Problems

Man_From_Bath

So the long and short of this is the following.

A family member of mine has a serious drug addiction, both he and his partner have had their 5 children removed from them and they have also now lost their house.

I was approached about a year ago to see if we would consider adopting the children but after great deal of soul searching it wasn't deemed possible. The rest of my family had nothing to do with them as they aren't people you would want to associate with.

Then about 3 months ago my family member decided everything was the fault of mine and my wife and decided to wreak havoc on my property. He vandalised 3 cars causing over £6000 worth of damage, put a brick through my kitchen window, tried to break into the front door and stole my sons bicycle.

We reported to the police and he was caught on the top of my road where i live. In April he pleaded guilty and was jailed for 23 weeks, he could be out in early July.

We've had CCTV fitted and i've also been to court to take out a non molestation order out against him but my wife is living in fear of him returning.

I've lost over £1000 in paying Excess and another £1,200 on CCTV. As he was giving a custodial sentence we were awarded no compensation.

The police says there hands are tied, my wife would like to move but she's self employed and works from home whilst i have a decent job and can't afford to get into trouble.

Does anyone have any advice ? it's like sitting waiting for the inevitable he really isn't a nice character.

Gavin83

You might need to be a bit more specific as to what advice you're after or what you're suggesting. I'm not sure what else you can do that you've not already done but if you have a particular question it'll be easier to answer.

Man_From_Bath

Firstly does anyone have any idea if i can claim any fees / Excess from any Government Department ? Victims of Crime etc

What more can i do to protect my family ? we've sealed our letter box, CCTV etc.

I'm dreading him coming back as last time i stayed in as i had a broken arm, won't be the same if he does it again.

Anyone been in a similar situation ? we still see his kids but id be lying if i said it hadn't put us of

thanks for reading.

Gavin83

Man_From_Bath wrote: »

Firstly does anyone have any idea if i can claim any fees / Excess from any Government Department ? Victims of Crime etc

Unlikely. There is a Government scheme for this but it's typically for injuries resulting from a violent crime, which doesn't appear to apply here. Someone else might know more than me about this and it's worth investigating anyway but I think you might struggle with this one.

Typically you'd be expected to take the perpetrator to court. However in your case it appears he has no income or assets to pay you anything anyway so it's probably not worth the effort. I expect this is why the judge didn't award any compensation to you and potentially why he went to prison full stop.

Also, even if he did have the assets to pay you couldn't charge him for the CCTV, only the damages.

Man_From_Bath wrote: »

What more can i do to protect my family ? we've sealed our letter box, CCTV etc.

Probably not much more, short of moving. I guess you could get a big dog if you want a bit more in the way of home protection.

MovingForwards

You could get an alarm for your house, potentially they may have a panic button or similar, but you would need a monitored one which will cost subscriptions each month.

Motion sensors in the front / back to alert you to anyone/local animals approaching.

Only other option is to consider moving, potentially you won't be living under a shadow of what ifs.

Les79

Man_From_Bath wrote: »

I'm dreading him coming back as last time i stayed in as i had a broken arm, won't be the same if he does it again.

Might be worth running this past the police to be honest.... See what you can and cannot do on your property to protect your family. In the heat of the moment you could do something which backfires on you, though it would be understandable in one respect.