By Cara Sulieman
A MUM has hit out at the special treatment former RBS chief Sir Fred Goodwin received from the police when his house was vandalised.
Janet Langlands, 51, has had the windows of her Fiat Punto smashed in twice in the past few months – and said she had to wait EIGHT hours for police to show up at her Edinburgh home.
She said: “The police obviously feel that they have got more important things to do and they’re not giving me the same sort of service as Sir Fred got.
“I read in the paper that they appeared within about five minutes to his home and obviously they don’t think it’s as important to get to me.”
Arrived within minutes
When Sir Fred’s house and Mercedes were broken at his Grange home last week, police arrived within minutes and stayed for hours after the initial attack.
But when Janet found the back windscreen on her silver car had been vandalised when she went to leave for work at 8am on Monday, it was a different story.
When she called the police assistance number, the mother-of-two was told it could take up to four hours for officers to arrive.
“Absolutely ridiculous”
She said: “I thought they would have been here before four hours. I didn’t think it would be eight hours, especially since it’s the second time that it’s happened.
“I don’t know why it took so long, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Janet’s car was first targeted last December, when both the front and back windscreens were broken.
That time police took around five hours from the time of her call to attend at her home on Sydney Terrace.
Red stones
Two large red stones were found at the scene, one on the ground close to the car, and the other on the rear parcel shelf.
Janet doesn’t understand why she has been targeted by the vandals, but is disgusted at the way the police have handled it.
She said: “My car was the only one I the street that was damaged.
“There are much fancier cars than mine up and down the street. I don’t know why anybody would want to do that to my car, it’s just crazy.
“I can’t fathom it out at all. I’m not the sort of person who causes any arguments, I’m just a normal working mother.”
No special treatment
But police deny that Sir Fred was given any special treatment, saying that calls are responded to on the basis of priority, not location.
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: “Calls are responded to according to priority, with ongoing crimes or threats to personal safety being given a higher priority than those where a crime has already taken place and the accused is no longed in the vicinity.
“In the case of the incident last Wednesday, police were responding to the activation of a security alarm which could have indicated there was a threat to personal safety.
“All personal attack alarms or similar alarm calls are treated as a priority, irrespective of the address.”
