A HARDWORKING businesswoman has hit out at police for “doing nothing” after thugs surrounded her car as she tried to drive to work in the early hours.

Susan Drew left her home in Basildon at 3.45am in order to get to her sandwich making business.

But minutes after leaving, the 60-year-old found her way blocked by four hooded youths who stepped into the road.

Petrified mum-of-two Susan slammed on her brakes, narrowly missing the thugs before telling them to move.

The teens - thought to be about 18 - refused to budge and one then started slamming his hands onto the bonnet of Susan’s blue Citroen Belingo.

Fearing she’d be attacked, she slammed her car into reverse in order to escape.

Once at work she phoned police to describe her ordeal but was devastated to hear that no crime had been committed.

The grandma-of-three hit out at Essex Police saying: “It’s not surprising but it’s still upsetting”.

She added: “I don’t normally see anyone at that time of the morning, but there were these four lads at the side of the road.

“All four of them saw me coming so decided to stand across both lanes of the road. I slammed my brakes on, if I hadn’t done that I would have run them over - everything on my front passenger seat went flying.

“I came to a total standstill - three of them were looking the opposite way but one towards me. I starting gesturing to him to move but he started shouting ‘have you got a problem?’

“It was then that he started banging on the bonnet of my car and then came round to my door. I was really panicking as I was alone - it was pitch black and I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Susan slammed her car into reverse to escape.

She added: “I needed to report it to police as I would be devastated if I hadn’t and then someone else had suffered the same but not been able to get away.

"I then heard police were taking no further action and was appalled.”

Susan said many people in the Pitsea area of Basildon were disillusioned by the lack of action by police in her hometown.

“It’s pretty normal nowadays for the police to do nothing.

“This has made me scared to head out for work at that time of day but I have to do it for my job as the sandwiches need making for delivery.

“I am 60 and hardworking so I don’t need this hassle in my life.

“To know that the police aren’t fussed about taking action is poor. They’re doing nothing more so these lads will just carry on with their thuggish ways.

“People on Facebook said I should have just run them over but I’d be the one in court if I did that.”

Unfortunately Susan didn’t have a dash-cam in her Citroen to capture the teens.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “We were called shortly after 3.30am on Friday, January 17, with reports a group of men were causing a disturbance in Crest Avenue, Pitsea.

“We spoke to the parties involved and they left the scene. No criminal offences were reported.”