A knife-wielding robber forced a man to hand over his high-value Audi before dousing it in petrol and setting it on fire. Joshua Whiteley, 22, was one of three men who woke the victim by banging on his door on Hesley Road, Harworth, Bassetlaw, at 4am on October 15, 2022.
They threatened to break into the house and kill the victim if he did not hand over the keys to his Audi. After he threw his keys from an upstairs window the robbers got into the vehicle and drove off.
Police later attended the scene and a tracker revealed the car had come to a halt in an industrial estate in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Officers from West Yorkshire Police, who were investigating an earlier road crash, discovered the car had been burnt out.
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It was being driven on cloned plates but chassis checks revealed it was the vehicle stolen earlier that day in Harworth. Officers studied CCTV footage from a nearby petrol station which showed a man buying a jerry can, petrol and a lighter.
Detectives in Nottinghamshire later viewed one of the CCTV still images and were able to identify Whiteley. Whiteley, of Britannia Road, Morley, Leeds, also admitted an attempted burglary in Buckingham Court, Harworth, where another victim was threatened with a knife.
The victim’s patio door was smashed but the offenders left empty handed. Whiteley was jailed for 12 years and nine months at Nottingham Crown Court when he appeared for sentencing on Thursday, June 29.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, arson and attempted burglary. Detective Constable Andrew Brownless, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Both incidents must have been extremely frightening for the victims.
“Thankfully robberies like this are very rare but when they happen we investigate with all the tools available to us. In this case we worked closely with colleagues in another force in order to trace the car and identify Whiteley.
"Cross county-border cooperation like this is vital in bringing criminals to justice. I'm pleased with the sentence handed down to Whiteley and I hope this provides reassurance to his victims and other members of the public."
