Storm Eunice causes 'thousands of pounds worth of damage' to collector's classic cars

A classic car collector has described the moment Storm Eunice destroyed the barn where he keeps his prized motors - causing thousands of pounds of damage. Just hours earlier, Ewen Sergison, had been on board a flight that struggled to land at Gatwick Airport.The 46-year-old racing engineer was on his way back into the country when Storm Eunice hit the UK on Friday, (Feb 18). Mr Sergison said: "I drive Formula One cars for a living and I have never been so scared in my life."I'm not religious but even I started praying for us to reach the ground safely."

After landing, he made his way to Darlton, Nottinghamshire, where his rural property houses valuable racing cars.Mr Sergison said: "We'd only been home for around half an hour."We got the dogs in the house and I said to my partner that I thought a tile was going to come off."Straight away one did and then the whole courtyard just filled with dust. The building's roof and walls came down."

The structure came down and landed on a number of his cars - including an Aston Martin Vantage and a 1968 Mini Marcos which was given to him by his late mother when he was 14.Two cars belonging to some of his customers were also in the barn, but escaped relatively undamaged.Mr Sergison said: "My partner was absolutely hysterical. My first thought was 'Are there any members of staff in the building?'"So when I saw there wasn't and everyone was alright, it was a massive relief."I had customers cars in there as well as my own - one of them is worth more than £350,000. Thankfully there was only minor damage to that one."Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage has been done. It's pretty devastating."