HE froze as he peered into the small cell.

This was a nightmare.

He felt numb, sick. His knees trembled. Tears welled up but he fought them back.

Reluctantly he stepped through the doorway. It felt cold. He jumped nervously as the door crashed shut behind him, echoing round the cell.

The four hours Ron Levy spent locked up in police custody have been revealed in full for the first time.

At 78, the popular Colchester businessman and church warden has finally self- published his first, autobiographical book.

It tells the true story of his campaign to expose corruption within the housing department at Southend Council in the 1970s and which made national newspaper headlines at the time.

While Ron was locked up, his home in Shoeburyness was searched with his wife Ann at home with one of their five frightened children.

Years later retiree Ron, who moved to Colchester in 1985, is keen to share what happened.

For about 30 years he ran a barber shop at St Botolph’s Circus but had started the book in the early 1980s.

Ron revisited his words about five years ago, determined to get the book finished.

He said: “I had to write it because I had to get it out of my system and onto paper.

"It is a story that I think all councillors and people elected in local Government and MPs should read.

“This was going on for years. It led to the fraud being revealed. It is a lesson to everybody elected to be vigilant and respond to the people - they are not on an ego trip.”

Ron’s book reveals how for years William Muckley, the council’s deputy director, had ruled the housing department but complaints about him were ignored.

But when Conservative Ron was elected to the council for the first time, people came to him complaining of unfair treatment with their housing problems.

One particular complaint was from a mother-of-three who said her husband had been sexually abusing their children but that Muckley had refused to rehome them.

For six years Ron pressed for an enquiry but his efforts were dismissed.

His determination received regular publicity in the press, and even by Paul Foot in the Daily Mirror, until a whistle blower posted Ron copies of council papers revealing what Mr Muckley had been up to.

But perversely, Ron was then quizzed by police, after he voluntarily attended Southend Police Station, over where the papers came from.

Remembering that moment, Ron who then resigned from the council, added: “What was really, really difficult, in my naivety - I couldn’t believe I was the person trying to expose the misconduct and I was the innocent person in the cell.”

“There were so many people closing in on me – it was evil that was flourishing,” he added.

"I had no reason to criticise the police, they received a complaint from the CEO of Southend Council and they had a duty to investigate. With regard to the fraud investigation the police deserve the highest praise."

The Evening Echo, today known as the Echo, reported the story on May 7 1982, with the headline “Ex-Councillor Held in Cells”.

Police released Ron after a few hours without charge.

He vowed to continue his campaign and accused the council clerk of acting maliciously in reporting him to the police.

All the names quoted in the book are real.

His book reveals what unfolded but there is no doubt his feels vindicated, writing in the book's epilogue: "Ordinary beings can encounter extraordinary experiences.

"I was certainly an ordinary being, but I must have an encountered far, far more extraordinary experiences than most others."

The Great Southend Fraud, The Twist In The Tale, is available from Amazon in paperback or to download to a Kindle.