Jarrow taxi driver on Universal Credit has car torched days before going back to work
A taxi driver who has been living off Universal Credit since the Covid-19 outbreak had his car torched a week before he was due to go back to work.
Dad-of-two Graeme Weedy has been out of work since March when the pandemic hit, but had been intending to start driving again next week “once the pubs settled down”. But the 47-year-old, from Jarrow, is now facing unemployment again after a suspected arson attack on his own driveway.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Graeme looked out of his window to see two men had set fire to his car. The blaze spread to his three bins, which caught alight and melted. The car, which Graeme uses as his taxi, has been written off.
But Graeme said the outcome could have been much worse. “The bins were against my downstairs window and if me and my wife were asleep it would have been a different story as I believe my house would have caught alight,” he said.
Grame and his wife were both at their home in Low Simonside at 2.45am when the arson attack happened. He said: “I heard voices outside but at first I thought it was my son coming home from a friend’s house.
“But then I heard three big bangs and I heard my daughter getting up in the next bedroom and heard her shout. “I looked out of the window and saw two lads on the drive. The car was on fire and it was about two inches away from the bins, which also caught alight.”
Graeme said that when he shouted to the males they ran off and went under the Metro bridge towards an industrial estate.
The incident means that for now, self-employed Graeme, who is also recovering from a heart attack in April, will have to continue living off Universal Credit.
He said: “I’m just frustrated because I was planning to go back to work next week, I was waiting until the pubs settled down. “We’ve got two mortgages, my wife is also self employed but she’s just started that before the pandemic so hasn’t been able to claim anything. “The bins have melted all over the driveway but the council have said I have to buy new ones.”
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: "At about 2.45am on Sunday police received a report that a car was on fire on Lynton Avenue in Jarrow.
“Emergency services attended and the fire was extinguished. An investigation into the circumstances are ongoing but it is being treated as arson at this time.
“Anyone with information about the incident, or who saw anyone acting suspiciously on Lynton Avenue in the early hours of Sunday, is asked to contact police on 101 quoting log 207 05/07/20."
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