Leigh: Man jailed over series of attempted car robberies after extensive investigation

A man has been jailed for five years over a series of attempted car thefts thanks to work by our detectives.

On 26 September last year, Levi Whalley forced his way into three cars, and tried to get into several others, threatening the drivers in the Leigh and Basildon areas over a space of about 45 minutes.

At around 8.50am, a woman was sitting in her blue Peugeot at traffic lights at the junction of London Road and Herschell Road in Leigh-on-Sea when Whalley approached the vehicle, opened the door and shouted at her to get out.

He assaulted her, threatened her before driving off in the car.

Thorough investigation

Shortly after we received a call from a member of the public who saw the stolen Peugeot being driven with blown out tyres on the London-bound A127 near Southend.

The caller reported the driver stopped the car before then trying to get into others.

A short time later, another driver reported seeing the Peugeot on a slip road just off the A127 near Basildon at which point they pull over to offer their help.

The driver of the Peugeot, Whalley, got into the other driver’s car, threatened him and demanded he get out before the driver drove off with both of them still in the car.

He stopped a short while later at the Nok Bridge turn off before Whalley got out and headed towards Basildon town centre.

He subsequently tried to get into two other vehicles, including pulling a woman out of hers and trying to drive off before being apprehended by members of the public.

Officers arrived and Whalley was arrested and later charged with one count of robbery, two counts of attempted robbery, one count of failing to provide a specimen for analysis, and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

Whalley, 33, of no fixed address, denied the charges but was convicted on Monday 23 October following a trial at Basildon Crown Court and promptly sentenced to five years in prison.

'These were terrifying incidents'

Investigating officer Detective Constable Mark Sawyer said:

“In a 45-minute period Levi Whalley threatened a number of people in a terrifying series of incidents.
“His actions caused those involved a significant amount of distress that will likely stay with them for some time.
“This was a complex series of incidents to respond to, moving from Leigh to Basildon but the evidence we were able to compile against Whalley means he will no spend the foreseeable future in prison.”

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