LEWIS Cook is desperate to leave his home in Pill, Newport, because of car crime.

Since moving to the area six months ago, he has had his own car vandalised twice and has seen youngsters break into another vehicle outside his home.

And two of his neighbours have experienced car crime since he started renting his Commercial Road flat.

During a lunchtime in July, he parked at the Kwik Save car park in Commercial Road, and after 15 minutes of shopping, found his car spotlights had been stolen.

More recently, Mr Cook, 21, had his car radio aerial snapped off and has seen about 12 youngsters break into a black Metro.

Mr Cook said: "I'm sweating every night about my car. You quite often see burned out cars at the side of the road.

"The area as a whole is awful for any car owner. I only moved here temporarily but I didn't realise I would want to move out so quickly. "If I didn't have my car I probably wouldn't mind staying. It's the car crime that has put me off."

Mr Cook said one of his neighbours had their car stolen and burned out and another had a car window smashed.

A spokeswoman for the Kwik Save at Commercial Road said Newport City Council CCTV cameras from the street covered the car park.

She said: "We had a number of problems here but that was years ago. Recently, there has been very little trouble at the car park."

She said security guards at the store kept an eye on the car park during opening hours.