A shocking story of how a 40-year-old car salesman in the UK turned car thief and even police impersonator all to fund intense his cocaine addiction unfolded in court recently. It’s like a real life version of Breaking Bad or maybe a Shakespearian tragedy, with the consequences of the man’s actions far-reaching.
Driver finds out why jumping out of a vehicle after it’s pitted is a bad idea.
Basically, this man used his knowledge of how car dealerships work to take cars on test drives and just never return. From what StokeonTrentLive reports, it sounds like he started by taking his company-issued Peugeot after failing to show up at work, then filing a police report about it being stolen.
From there, he used a fake ID to take other rides out on test drives, most of them rather pedestrian rides, then simply disappeared. It was only after he failed to return and didn’t answer his phone that the dealerships realized they’d been had.
He also stole valuables out of parked vehicles and at one point, along with a female accomplice, burglarized a home as they both were dressed like police officers. When someone asked what they were doing in the house, they allegedly claimed to be police and said they were searching for a burglary suspect. How ironic.
They allegedly stole a phone during the burglary, then returned and questioned a woman at the house, who provided the passcode to the phone. Later, the woman noticed someone had made several transactions with her bank account.
All this was to fund the guy’s £400-a-day cocaine addiction, or so was testified in a recent court hearing. Before, he was making six figures, was respected at the dealership where he worked, and seemingly had a happy family life. The guy threw all that away for cocaine and a life of crime.
Sadly, plenty of car theft, as well as other property crimes, are fueled by drug addiction. But to hear of a man who was seemingly doing so well in life fall into that trap is all the more shocking.
Image via Hanbo Wang/Pexels
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[…] suspects also seemed to have plenty of experience breaking into cars. They didn’t just smash the glass and reach inside, but instead were able to break side windows […]