A COUPLE who said they lost more than £6,000 of valuables after a housing association mistakenly gave away their rented garage have received an apology.

Witney’s Darran Brown lost up to five collectable crystals and 30 storage boxes for them when Sanctuary Housing changed his garage lock and gave keys to the wrong tenants.

The association was meant to change the lock on a garage in Apley Way but instead changed Mr Brown’s garage in Farm Road. The new tenants were given keys to this garage.

They then allowed the new tenants to clear out the possessions, including family holiday photographs and wedding mementoes.

Mr Brown’s wife Julie spotted the men loading her possessions into their car and stopped them.

Sanctuary’s performance improvement officer Adele Farr told Mr Brown: “I would like to sincerely apologise for the poor service you have received.”

But she said the family only had permission to park a vehicle in the garage and pledged an unspecified “goodwill gesture”.

Mr Brown, 45, a Stagecoach bus driver, said: “It looks like they are doing whatever they can to wriggle out of it and not compensate us for their incompetence.”