{"id":193739,"date":"2025-06-18T06:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T06:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193739\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T06:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T06:52:12","slug":"thief-behind-150-crimes-stole-23000-bwm-in-showroom-test-drive-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193739\/","title":{"rendered":"Thief behind 150 crimes stole \u00a323,000 BWM in showroom test-drive scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrian Leek, aged 43, from Birmingham, crashed the car into an Audi at a roundabout shortly after driving off from the showroom\"AdrianAdrian Leek stole a \u00a323,000 BMW from Hilton Garage in Derbyshire<\/p>\n

A serial thief who has committed 150 crimes stole a \u00a323,000 BWM from a showroom after booking a test-drive.<\/p>\n

Adrian Leek, from Birmingham<\/a>, turned up at Hilton Garage in Derbyshire with an unidentified woman.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old was asked to make a 1p deposit from his bank but claimed he could not.<\/p>\n

Instead, he simply drove off in the BMW I3, colliding with a Range Rover in the forecourt and then ploughing into an Audi by going the wrong way at a nearby roundabout.<\/p>\n

R<\/strong>EAD MORE: Woman who got pregnant after sex with 13-year-old boy sobs as she’s jailed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Leek, of Icknield Port Road, Ladywood<\/a>, admitted theft and dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to two years and four months and banned from driving for the same period of time at Birmingham Crown Court<\/a> on Tuesday, June 17.<\/p>\n

Leek used a different name to book a test-drive at Hilton’s Garage in The Mease on February 23, 2022.<\/p>\n

\"HiltonHilton Garage in The Mease, Derbyshire<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Pierre de Garis said: “The defendant and a female unknown arrived at the showroom together.<\/p>\n

“The keys were handed to the defendant. They looked around the car for about 30 minutes before returning inside the showroom.<\/p>\n

“As per protocol the defendant was required to make a 1p bank transaction prior to a test-drive.<\/p>\n

“He said he didn’t have bank cards and was unable to make a payment but he said he would get his friend to make a payment of \u00a3100 for him. This never happened.”<\/p>\n

He told the court the member of staff cancelled the sale and moved on to another customer while Leek ‘made a show’ of having to make the payment.<\/p>\n

Mr Garis stated the employee returned to find the defendant and the female had gone. Then he noticed the BWM being driven across the forecourt.<\/p>\n

He said: “He reversed, clipping a Range Rover, but caused no damage.<\/p>\n

“He proceeded to drive towards the exit barrier. Another member of staff unaware that a theft was in progress opened the barrier.<\/p>\n

“The defendant drove off. It is at this point the dangerous driving commenced.<\/p>\n

“The defendant drove the wrong way around the roundabout at the A50 and A516 and collided head on with an Audi Q3.<\/p>\n

“It caused extensive damage to both vehicles. The damage to the Audi was estimated at \u00a315,000 and it was written off.<\/p>\n

“There were minor injuries to the occupants of the Audi. The defendant abandoned the car and made off on foot.”<\/p>\n

\"PoliceAdrian Leek<\/p>\n

Mr de Garis stated Leek had a ‘prolific’ record of 71 previous convictions for 150 offences including 81 thefts and similar crimes since 1998.<\/p>\n

Sarah Turner, defending, said: “The reason for offending was a drug debt.<\/p>\n

“He was instructed by those he owed the debt to, to attend and to test-drive the vehicle.<\/p>\n

“He was in a difficult place at the time on drugs.”<\/p>\n

She added he had ‘done well’ during his two months in prison on remand by becoming clean from drugs and securing a ‘trusted’ job in the servery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Leek, aged 43, from Birmingham, crashed the car into an Audi at a roundabout shortly after driving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,10386,748,30,188,393,4884,40388,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-193739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-crown-court","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-ladywood","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114703050008434100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}