A Marshall BMW dealership repaired vandalism caused to a number of cars belonging to local residents after spotting evidence of their predicament on social media.

Kind-hearted aftersales manager Jamie Steel, from Marshall BMW Hampshire, in Hook, came up with the plan to cheer up the owners of three cars who were targeted by an attack on Western Way.

Scratches ran along the paintwork and offensive words were scraped into the bonnet of one of the cars on the street.

Mazda owner Carl Thompson told the Basingstoke Gazette that his car had been “scratched and damaged in such a way that I couldn’t imagine affording the repairs” and another victim was disabled and would struggle to arrange repairs, the newspaper was told.

But staff at the BMW garage alerted Jamie Steel and the repair work was arranged and completed free of charge.

The estimated cost for the repairs to all three of the cars would total around six thousand pounds.

Steel told the Gazette: “Some of my technicians live near Western Way, and saw the post in a group on social media.

“At least one of the cars that has been affected by this are disabled, so I really wanted to help them out.”

Marshall’s use of social media to promote community goodwill is further evidence of the approach which saw the group land the Best Use of Social Media title at the AM Awards 2017.

With 27 Facebook pages and 24 separate Twitter accounts, Marshall believes it has the largest social coverage of any dealer group in the AM100.

Its online following now includes a reach of 51.5 million users on Facebook plus 6.4 million Twitter followers.