Mystery surrounds spate of cars dumped in canals

A spate of cars being dumped in canals in the West Midlands risks costing a charity tends of thousands of pounds.

Three vehicles have been found dumped in canals in Tipton, Dudley and Solihull, prompting huge operations to life them free.

Dramatic images shared by the Canal & River Trust online showed a Land Rover spotted in a lock on the New Main Line Canal in Tipton last Sunday.

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The vehicle, which is believed to have been stolen, was lifted out by a crane on the same day.

But just a few days later, another car had to be removed from the Grand Union Canal at Olton.

A third car was also found in the Dudley Canal and had to be recovered, prompting the Canal & River Trust to hit out at those responsible, saying that the money spent on removing the vehicles was "money we can't afford".

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Writing on Twitter, the trust said: "The car that was in the canal at Delph Locks #Dudley has been removed.

"Thanks to our operations team who got this car removed in a few days.

"This the third car dumped into the canal this week - each operation costs us around £10k which as a charity this is money we can't afford."

According to the BBC, the trust said attempts would be made to recover the cost through insurance, but it was "not always successful".

Attempts will be made to recover the cost of removing the vehicles through insurance, the trust said, but it added "we're not always successful".