PETROL-PINCHING vandals targeted the car of a couple of hospital employees who have been walking to work every day to conserve their fuel.

Arlene and Phillip Dearden finally decided to use their car yesterday morning because it was raining and they hoped the petrol crisis was nearing an end.

But when they went to the Vauxhall Astra parked on land near their Haslingden Road home in Blackburn, they realised thieves had cut the fuel pipe and their precious petrol had leaked out.

Mrs Dearden was furious. She said: "We have both been walking to and from work every day this week and my son has been walking to school because we wanted to save our petrol in case there was an emergency.

"We could have taken hospital letters to get more petrol as part of the emergency services team but we didn't -- we thought we would let the real emergency cases have the fuel.

"Then, when we feel we have to use the car, we find that someone has slashed the petrol pipe.

"I bet they didn't get more than a few pounds worth in whatever container they had because most of it seemed to have been spilt all over the floor.

"I can't tell you how furious we are."

Mrs Dearden is a personal assistant to one of the directors at Queen's Park Hospital and her husband works in the catering department at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

Their son Kristopher goes to Queen's Park High School.

Mrs Dearden said: "My husband has been setting off to work at 5.30am every day and we really felt like we were doing our bit for the health service and the situation in general. Now we feel like it has all been thrown back in our faces."