A TAXI was vandalised in Ludlow in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Dean Chalmers, known locally as Teaky, woke up to find the windows on his taxi smashed following an outbreak of vandalism on Sunday morning.

Mr Chalmers, who runs Teaky's Taxis, believes the vehicle, which was parked in Sandpits Avenue, was vandalised around 3.45am.

"The front window looks like it has been done with a hammer. It has been cracked and there is a hole in it but they did not smash it," said Mr Chalmers.

"They have then gone round to the side windows and smashed the rest with the hammer.

“There was glass all over the place inside and out.

"The beauty of it was there is money in the cab and it has not been taken.

"The police went knocking on doors yesterday morning to see if anyone had seen anything but they had not."

Although nothing was seen a commotion was heard in the early hours.

"The missus was in bed and she heard the smash. You cannot see the spot directly from the bedroom so she could not see anything," said Mr Chalmers.

"She got up first and saw the damage and said 'I think we have a problem'.

"I had jobs to go out to and could not do that as we had to sort this out.

"We had to turn people away because of it.

"We have still got the other car to use. It's a good job we have it."

Mr Chalmers, who is anxious to hear from anyone who has any information, said the lack of street lighting makes it more difficult to catch the culprits.

"A big problem is we have no street lighting after midnight," said Mr Chalmers. "If we had it somebody might have seen his or her face."