Nightclub supremo Dick De Vigne today spoke of his shock when he was woken to find his top-of-the-range Mercedes in flames outside his house.

Firefighters were called to the Storm nightclub owner's home in Lovelace Gardens, Southend, at around midnight.

Eyewitness accounts claim a window of the £35,000 Mercedes E250 had been smashed and a petrol can was seen on the seat.

Today Mr De Vigne said he had no idea who had caused the blaze or why his car had been targeted.

He said: "No-one was hurt, but the car was written off in the incident. It's not yet known if the fire was connected to my nightclub responsibilities or was a random act of vandalism.

"Running a club means that on occasions you have to turn down entry to prospective customers, but torching your car as a result seems a little extreme to say the least."

Mr De Vigne is the director of Storm in Elmer Approach, Southend, which opened in April last year after a refit costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Before opening Storm he successfully ran Adlib in Lucy Road.

Storm is a venue Mr De Vigne has deep connections with - he used to run the club in the late 80s when it was known as Rain.

Wrecked - Dick De Vigne (left) awoke to find his £35,000 car in flames

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.