This article: Lionel Meadows is a London garage owner who makes extra cash dealing in stolen cars. Meadows buys log books from scrapped models, then has other cars corresponding to the log books stolen and the number plates replaced. He gives a list of the latest batch to young petty thief Tommy Towers, which includes a 1959 Ford Anglia. The car Tommy steals belongs to struggling cosmetics salesman John Cummings, who needs the car to keep his job. Also, he did not insure the car against theft and becomes desperate to recover it. 
Put onto Tommy by a street newspaper vendor, Alfie, who witnessed the crime, Cummings starts investigating the activities of Meadows and his associate Cliff. Meadows, disturbed by his inquiries, brutalizes Alfie, who then commits suicide.
Despite being warned off by both Meadows and the police, Cummings persists in his attempts to recover the car, even when his wife threatens to leave him and take the children away. It transpires that since his demob from the army, Cummings has failed at several enterprises, though his wife has always been supportive. Cummings eventually finds the weak link in Meadows's operation, his mistress Jackie, a teenage runaway whom, like Tommy, Meadows continually threatens and abuses.
Taking Jackie under his wing, Cummings sets out to prove that he is correct and that Meadows is a major criminal, stealing dozens of cars. He eventually convinces the police, but even then, they lack interest in helping him recover his car. Cummings finds he has to take matters into his own hands. contains an answer for the question: Who does the petty thief get a list from?, what is it ?


Lionel Meadows