A dad from Brazil says he's joining the police to help families like his who have been attacked.

Delivery driver Marcelo Gomes and his family say they have been repeatedly targeted since moving to Chatham in January of last year.

The 31-year-old, from Glencoe Road, has had his tyres slashed and a car and two motorbikes stolen in what he says is a vendetta because they're foreigners.

With his wife and three children, aged seven, five, and 22 months, Marcelo came to the UK for a better life.

But since moving to Chatham he says they regularly get abused – being told to leave the country as they "do not belong" here.

In September, when he first spoke to KentOnline, the dad-of-three was £23,000 in debt. That amount has now doubled as the family had yet another car stolen and now owe £48,000.

The dad had to quit his job as a parcel delivery driver after being forced into selling his vans to try and pay some bills.

He currently works for JustEat but says the family are barely scraping by.

"I’m now just hoping for the best," he said. "Before this nightmare, my wife and I would make approximately £8,000 a month.

"We now struggle to even make it to £2,000 as we are drowning in debt."

After the latest car theft, Marcelo decided to take matters into his own hands and has now enrolled to join the police.

"I couldn’t take it anymore," he said. "It was becoming a vicious cycle of getting attacked, reporting every incident to police, to result in nothing.

"I will study a lot and make my own efforts to help people in a way that I have not been."

"That is why last month I decided to take matters into my own hands and talk to police and sign up to become an officer.

"I am now under training and hopefully, by the middle of this year, I should have this job.

"Since the police could not solve my problems, I will study a lot and make my own efforts to help people in a way that I have not been."

Marcelo and his wife had considered moving out of the town, but do not want to risk any more financial instability or put their children's wellbeing in jeopardy.

He added: "I spoke with my wife and she thankfully is giving me a lot of support, and we both work on not letting this affect us any more, especially our children.

"We don’t want to pass this worry on to them. It would also not be fair to my children because they are doing so well in school, and finally adapting."

All incidents have been reported to police.

Inspector Martin Sharp, of Medway’s Community Safety Unit, said: "These reports were received between March and September 2022 and for each report various inquiries, including officers reviewing CCTV and carrying out house to house inquiries. However, no suspects were identified.

"Of the four theft of motor vehicle reports, three of the vehicles were recovered and returned, with one being a hire vehicle which was returned to the company.

"During the investigations, officers provided crime prevention advice to the victim, including advice about how to secure vehicles and where to park.

"Any further offences should be reported to the police and officers will investigate accordingly."