AN elderly woman who suffers with a spine condition has been left “heartbroken” after her mobility scooter was stolen - robbing her of her independence.

Linda Barham, 72, has been staying at the Rosebank Park assisted living complex, in Main Road, Harwich, for the past four years.

She lives there with husband of 20 years Jay Barham, 38, who has described the facility as usually being a “lovely place”.

But on Friday, Linda, who suffers with a crumbling spine and struggles to walk, woke to find her cherished mobility scooter had been stolen.

She has not used it since the start of July, due to being ill, so had left it in the facility’s special buggy room.

But when she and Jay went to collect the scooter to finally use it again, it had mysteriously disappeared.

Jay said: “Her scooter was stolen from the buggy room, which just sums up my life at the moment.

“Linda is heartbroken that it is gone because she does not go out very much but when she does it gives her a bit of independence.

“I am upset for her because she has to use a scooter or wheelchair due to having a crumbling spine.

“She had an operation to try and fix it about 10 years ago but it was not successful and there is nothing more they can do.”

Frustrated Jay blasted those responsible for stealing his wife’s scooter and called on One Housing, which runs Rosebank Park, to do more in helping them find it.

“As I get older I get very disappointed in the human race and the lack of understanding shown to others,” he added.

“Rosebank Park is a lovely place, but unfortunately when something goes wrong like this they really do not seem to care.

“They could not be more unhelpful if they tried.”

Jayne Harding, regional general manager for Rosebank Park, said: “Rosebank Park takes security seriously and our mobility scooter room is accessible with a key fob and protected by CCTV, which we reviewed as soon as we learned the scooter was missing.

“Incidents like this are thankfully rare though if any of our customers experience crime or anti-social behaviour, we do all we can to support them.”