Police officers were called by Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service to a report of an abandoned car on fire at the weekend.
The incident happened at approximately 11.45am on Saturday 20 June – a car had been abandoned and set alight in a farmer’s field adjacent to the Ridgeway just off the B4192 near to Liddington Castle.
The fire service were able to quickly extinguish the blaze which completely destroyed the vehicle – a Ford Fiesta.
PC Tom Ashforth said: “It is likely that the car had been involved in criminal activity prior to being used to ram through a locked farm gate into a field of cows, causing damage to the gate, and then being set alight next to the cow’s water trough, resulting in toxic chemicals ending up in their drinking water and debris being strewn across the field. This could have proved fatal to the cows.
“These acts of mindless criminal damage, both to the car and to the farm gate, could have resulted in cows being seriously hurt or killed, the farmer suffering significant financial loss, and had the cows escaped it could have put road users in danger.”
Wiltshire Police are appealing for information regarding the car and its owner and how it ended up in the field.
If you can help, call 101 and quote crime reference number 54200059053.
Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
