By Liz Fowler

WHAT SHOULD have been a dream homecoming for a couple moving to a luxury Angus villa has become a nightmare.

Despite paying $25,000 to a removal firm to ship a household of belongings from California to their new 15-room home at Craigo on the outskirts of Montrose, Angus Cameron and his American wife Louise can barely move for packing crates.

The couple married in Las Vegas in January, since when Mr Cameron has been commuting regularly across the Atlantic to attend to his business.

He runs the long-established Mearns Lime and Seeds company.

Their plan was to combine their return to Scotland for a new life together at Craigo with a honeymoon.

However, when they stepped over the threshold last Thursday they found no room to move for packing crates and the only place to have a seat was on the patio.

“This has completely ruined our honeymoon,” said Mrs Cameron, at her wits’ end after five days of fruitless phone calls in an attempt to having the situation sorted out.

“We paid 25,000 dollars to Allied International for the whole package, which included shipping the furniture, unpacking and setting the house out.

“It took the crew three days in the US to pack up the house there, which they did beautifully, with all the crates marked according to which room in the house here they should go in.

“But here it’s a total shambles. The crew here have basically just dumped everything.

“The stuff’s just all over the place. The bits and parts box containing all the equipment to put some of the furniture together should have been the most important part of the shipment but it couldn’t be located.”

It took removal men most of the next day to find the box and assemble the bed.

The couple are unable to handle the heavy crates themselves due to physical disability.

Mrs Cameron recently underwent a knee operation while her husband has little movement in his left leg following a freak accident three years ago.

The 67-year-old businessman was literally ripped apart in the car park at Aberdeen airport when his Range Rover went into reverse with his body half in and half out of the vehicle.

He was rushed to hospital having lost four-fifths of his blood and was given only the slimmest chance of survival.

He said, “It’s so frustrating and I feel so helpless.

“If I could I would be getting this mess sorted out myself.

“I have a room in the house allocated as my office but I can’t even get in there.

“My computer is not fixed up or anything. We haven’t been able to get into the kitchen.

“We’ve had to eat on the patio. That’s the only place we can get a seat.

“We couldn’t even go back to my old house In Laurencekirk. That had to be vacated for the new owners.

“We can’t even get into the garage because that, too, is full of packing crates.

“The grandfather clock which is of immense value is sitting in the car port in a crate with the back ripped off.

“Fortunately it’s been dry. I dread to think of the damage to some of the furniture if it had been raining.”

“The problem is that Allied connect with the UK firm Pickfords to complete their international removal package,” said Mrs Cameron.

“But Pickfords are saying they are not responsible. Even our solicitor is getting nowhere.

“I don’t think it’s the fault of the crews who have been sent here, although you would think they would be better trained.”

She said, “We are utterly stuck.”

Repeated calls by The Courier to Pickfords were not returned yesterday.