Although the local authority says that Queen's Park resident Leanne Evans was given ample opportunity to claim the caravan, the mother-of-two claims that she was in hospital at the time with her three-year-old son and wasn't aware that efforts were being made to trace her.

Leanne bought the caravan last summer for £1,200 and says she spent hundreds of pounds kitting it out.

She revealed that the caravan was parked outside her former home at Queen's Avenue, adding that it had been due to be moved to her friend's house within a matter of days.

"It was parked at the back of a wee car park that no-one else uses. It wasn't even in anyone's way or anything.

"They said they put a sticker on the side of the caravan saying I had seven days to claim it, but that was the week I was in the Children's at the Royal with Je-maine as he was being treated for a blood infection so I knew nothing about it.

"When we found out that it was gone we phoned the police as we thought it had been stolen. They made some inquiries and came back to us to say that the council had taken it. I couldn't believe it," she told the Times.

"You'd imagine the council would have to keep it for a period of time to see if anyone claimed it, but they just took it away and crushed it.

"It's not so much the caravan, but all the stuff that was in it. My son's bike, his toys, a CD player, table, chairs - I spent £500 kitting the thing out. A blind man could have seen that it wasn't abandoned.

"I was gutted. I only bought it last summer and we'd only got away in it once. The worst bit is that they just crushed everything that was in it - all the stuff I'd only got to use once and all my son's toys."

A council spokesperson confirmed that the caravan had been removed in response to a complaint from the Housing Executive that it had been abandoned and was being vandalised.

"Investigations by environmental health staff failed to identify an owner and under the provisions of the Pollution Control and Local Government (NI) Order 1978 a notice was affixed to the caravan advising that it would be removed for disposal after seven days.

"No-one came forward to claim ownership of the caravan and it was removed and disposed of by a contractor acting for the council," she said.

A spokesperson for the council's Environmental Health team added: "The council have a legal responsibility to respond to complaints of abandoned vehicles and ensure they are removed and disposed of where appropriate. The procedure followed by council is designed to enable anyone who owns an allegedly abandoned vehicle to make themselves known and prevent the removal and destruction of their property. In this instance it is our understanding that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive had attempted to trace the caravan's owner on several occasions before council became involved."
It is understood that Leanne has been advised to put her grievance in writing to the council's Director of Environmental Services.