SHOP worker Jeanette Fleet met her MP Malcolm Moss this week to protest about the shortage of police after she suffered a mild heart attack caused, she claims, by police failure to respond to a disturbance. Mrs Fleet and her husband Martin say they contac

SHOP worker Jeanette Fleet met her MP Malcolm Moss this week to protest about the shortage of police after she suffered a mild heart attack caused, she claims, by police failure to respond to a disturbance.

Mrs Fleet and her husband Martin say they contacted police eight times on August 1 and a further six times the next morning, after Mrs Fleet saw a youth scratch a car belonging to her daughter's boyfriend which was parked outside their home in Guild Road, Walsoken.

Mrs Fleet met Mr Moss, MP for North-East Cambridgeshire on Wednesday, after being told there was only one officer on patrol to cover the district.

Mrs Fleet said: "They have to cover such a wide area and they have not got the resources. If it had turned nasty and we would have come to blows, nobody would have been able to come and assist us."

The car, a blue Vauxhall Corsa, was first scratched when it was parked in the Fleets' driveway on July 31.

The police were first called at about 7.30pm but with no response by 10pm, Mrs Fleet first started to get chest pains.

It was only after a doctor was called to tend to Mrs Fleet that police arrived - with an ambulance called for Mrs Fleet by the doctor.

But Mrs Fleet said: "The officer said to the paramedic 'has there been a fight here' and the paramedic said 'no' so he drove off."

Mr Moss said: "The information imparted by Wisbech Police Station that there was only one officer covering the whole of Fenland, if true, gives rise to serious disquiet about policing levels in our community.

"I shall be writing to the Chief Constable with details of this incident, requesting a full explanation as to why there was no response to some 14 calls, including a 999 call."

A police spokesman said: "We apologise if Mr and Mrs Fleet feel they did not receive the service they both expected and are entitled to from local officers.

"Police did attend on a number of occasions and the crime is being investigated. The concerns Mr and Mrs Fleet have expressed will be looked into.