A PROLIFIC thief who stole cars from showrooms to satisfy a compulsion to clean them has died in an accident behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle.

Colin Sadd, 44, was branded one of the country’s most active car criminals when he was jailed for six years in 2004 for making off with 36 new cars worth £320,000 from garages across Sheffield.

A contract cleaner, he achieved notoriety for the way that he strolled into a car dealership posing as a potential buyer and would drive away an expensive vehicle. It would later be found spotless at the side of the road with its keys still in the ignition. He would even take vehicles to the car wash or give them an extra polish before abandoning them.

The man, who was once described by a judge as the kind of thief you would want to steal your car, amassed 155 convictions and spent 18 years in prison.

He was wanted by Cleveland Police for absconding from jail.

He died when a stolen Vauxhall Astra collided with a lorry on the A59 Liverpool Old Road, near Much Hoole, Preston, Lancashire.

Five vehicles were involved in the accident, which led to the road being closed and long tailbacks.

Sadd, of Southey Green, Sheffield, targeted garages across Yorkshire and the Midlands. He developed his compulsion at 11, after spending a troubled childhood in care.

Despite spending much of his adult life in prison, he developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of car marques and specifications, treasuring each of the stolen vehicles as if it was his own.

When he was jailed two years ago, Judge Alan Goldsack said: “You do not gain any financial benefit, but having driven them around for a time you dump them with the keys still in.

“It makes you feel worthwhile and you like to give the impression you are a businessman with an expensive car.

“Clearly those who run businesses selling cars are at very considerable risk from your activities.” After Sadd’s last court hearing, his wife of 13 years, Mary, 48, a nurse, said that she was filing for divorce. She said: “He looked after the cars he stole better than me.”

A Lancashire police spokesman said: “He posed as a potential customer and while sales staff were distracted by another customer he went to a vehicle, took the keys, got into it and drove on to the A59 directly into the path of a 7.5 tonne light goods vehicle.

“The vehicles collided and the lorry veered on to the opposite carriageway and overturned.”

Sadd was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision.

Several other people who were involved in the crash were taken to hospital but none was said to be seriously injured, including the driver of the lorry that collided with the car Sadd had stolen, police said.

A spokesman for the fire brigade said that the vehicles were scattered across the carriageway.

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