Couple offer £1,000 reward after fire-bomb car attack

Couple offer £1,000 reward after fire-bomb car attack

A Bamford couple are offering a £1,000 reward for help tracking down a thug who fire-bombed their car in the early hours of this morning (14 July).

Business owner Asif Ali and his wife Charlotte were startled when they heard a loud bang on their driveway on Kenyon Fold shortly before 1.00am – only to find that one car was well alight and the other was burning next to it.

One man wearing a light coloured tracksuit hoodie was seen on CCTV running away from the scene, and Greater Manchester Police are now appealing for information to track him down.

The couple, who have lived on the street for years, say they are both calm and hardworking people with no enemies, and cannot make sense of the attack.

They did, however, assist police earlier this year by supplying CCTV when a neighbour was burgled, and suspicions have risen that they have been targeted for this reason.

Mr Ali told Rochdale Online: “My wife and I were both in bed when we heard a huge bang. At first it sounded like someone was breaking in so I ran to the window. I saw the man running off and my wife’s car was on fire. The flames were so big that my car was also damaged, I had to move it out of the way.

“My wife and I are hardworking people, she is a mortgage advisor and I have my own company. We don’t have enemies, we are not the sort of people to get into trouble.

“We thought about it for ages, and the only thing we could come up with is that we assisted the police last year when a neighbour got burgled. We had CCTV footage, even though it didn’t show anything we tried to help. I don’t know if there is a grudge held against us for that, but another neighbour was petrol bombed after helping the police too, so it makes you think doesn’t it.”

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “Officers were called to an address on Kenyan Fold in Norden after reports that a car had been set on fire. It is being treated as an arson attack and investigations are underway to find the person responsible.”

Mr Ali has said that anyone who can give him a name of the attacker or can help him identify him, he will hand over £1,000.

Anyone with information can contact police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.