A man left disabled after being dragged 100 metres by a car driven by a thief was today outraged after his attacker was jailed for three years.
Changed man - victim David Lever, right, with PC Alan Barley. Mr Lever now keeps his garden ornaments chained up Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY ZEJNX3
David Lever, 62, suffered severe injuries to his head, hands and feet after clinging to the fleeing car. Mr Lever, who owns Elms Nursery, Crays Hill, said: "The sentence has left me feeling sick as a pig. I have been left crippled. I was a very different man nine months ago."
His injuries have forced him to take early retirement and he now receives psychiatric treatment. Mr Lever was sitting at his dining room window when he spotted a man and woman snooping around the nursery in Hardings Elms Road.
He then saw her putting a bird table - worth £35 - into the back of a car. Mr Lever ran out and pulled open the car door trying to get the table out.
He said: "The next thing I knew the car raced off and I was dragged down the road."
The driver Michael Young, 26, of no fixed address, was sentenced to three years' jail at Basildon Crown Court on Friday. Young, who is a heroin addict, was found guilty of theft, dangerous driving and causing actual bodily harm.
The woman in the case has not been traced.
Published Monday May 31, 2004
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