'Racist yobs' force couple to quit home

RACIST yobs forced a married couple to abandon their home and take refuge in a caravan before the Turkish husband was finally forced to flee the country.

Janet and Umit Sarsilmaz spent three months living in a small caravan at a camp site in Washington after they said "psychological terrorism" made the house they own in Orkney Court, Carisbrooke Drive, Durrington, a "virtual prison".

Youths slashed a fabric roof on their Escort convertible car, petrol-bombed a second car, trashed their garden, smashed windows in their home, twice locked Mrs Sarsilmaz in her garage and hit her husband around the head with a plank of wood, the couple claim.

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Fighting back the tears, heartbroken Mrs Sarsilmaz, 47, an office administrator, whose husband returned to Turkey in February, said: "We slept in a tent for two weeks and then bought a tiny caravan. We didn't have a fridge to put food in and cooked on a camp stove. I had to iron my clothes at work and turned up with shoes covered in mud. Life was basic but even that was better than where we were."

Mrs Sarsilmaz has vowed never to return to the place she once called home since moving into a bed and breakfast after burglars broke into the property on March 21.

Thieves stole jewellery, a CD player, a camera and left a pile of clothes on the kitchen floor covered in smashed eggs and red wine.

The mother-of-two, who has requested a police escort several times, said: "Our house is not our own any more. When I am there I'm constantly looking and listening for what might happen next. I am angry at the people who are doing it, but I'm also angry that the law seems to be on their side."

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The couple became one of the few tenants to own their property on the estate when they bought it from Worthing Homes for 45,000 in 2001.

Now they want to sell but are reluctant to accept their highest offer of 122,000 '“ 40,000 less than its market value.

She said: "I get the feeling that because we have bought the house, because we work and because we are trying to make our lives better, we are penalised.

"If we were Worthing Homes tenants, we would have been moved out by now but because it's our home we can't sell it, we can't rent it out and we can't live in it." Doctors have prescribed Mrs Sarsilmaz anti-depressants as she attempts to resolve the situation and save her six-year marriage.

Police confirmed they were investigating the complaints but would not comment further.

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