A woman became so sick of her constantly malfunctioning washing machine that she took drastic action and held the repair man hostage.

Tracey Fox, 42, of Thornley, County Durham, bought her washing machine 10 months ago. She had called out an engineer to repair it on five occasions.

On January 13, her patience finally ran out. After surviving without her washing machine for three weeks, she took the law into her own hands. She barricaded herself against the door and refused to let the Currys engineer out of her home.

The engineer believed he had found the root of the problem when the extricated a two pence coin from the machine.

But when he started to pack up his equipment, Mrs Fox insisted he take a more thorough look. She told the repair man he could not leave and blocked his exit by sitting in front of her back door.

After the engineer and Mrs Fox agreed to end the stand-off by calling the police, the situation was resolved amicably. In addition, Currys have since supplied Mrs Fox with a new washing machine.

Do you honestly think that we log on to British Expats Forum to read stuff like this?

youre a ****in idiot

I certainly do NOT read all of your threads...just those that sound vaguely interesting. In future I will try and be more selective. In all sincerity Bison isn't there a more suitable Forum elsewhere for you to mess about in?