Couple who travelled to Leeds for gig furious after van full of work equipment stolen from secure car park

Marie and Clive Richardson travelled to the city in their van - which doubled up as a place to sleep overnight - on April 12 and booked a parking spot on the site operated by the Hampton by Hilton on Gower Street by the A64.

The car park was secure but the couple returned after the show to find that the van - a grey Ford Transit - had been stolen and driven through the barrier.

The couple have said they were disappointed by the response of the police and have approached the hotel chain and the car park operator for compensation.

West Yorkshire Police have said they are yet to identify a suspect.

Mrs Richardson said that they drove down to Leeds from Teeside to watch a local band called Avalanche Party at Oporto in the city centre. They were then planning on travelling to Scunthorpe the following day for another concert, which they had booked a hotel for.

She said: “We had all of Clive’s power tools in the bulkhead, our clothes and all our personal belongings were in the back, the full total of our possessions was a few thousand pounds.

“We’d paid for secure parking and found our spot at The Hampton Hilton. We felt really safe as there was CCTV advertised all over the car park and cameras with security barriers.”

She said that they returned in the evening and “to our shock and horror” found that the van had been stolen. She said that she informed the police and went into the hotel where they were shown CCTV footage of four men taking the van and driving it through the barrier.

The hotel provided the couple a place to sleep for the night free-of-charge and Mrs Richardson said that police told her they would assess the footage.

However, she said she was “flabbergasted” when was told by police that the “case was closed”.

She added that she had remained in contact with the manager at the hotel and didn’t feel that enough was done by police to catch the perpetrators.

She said: “We’re still in shock and it’s going to take months or even a couple of years to replace what was stolen.

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“Clive’s a self employed builder and everything he needs for work was the van and everything in it.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Police received a report of a vehicle theft from the car park of a hotel on Neville Street, Leeds, which happened overnight between April 12 and 13.

“No suspect has been identified.”

Hampton by Hilton did not respond to a request for a comment.