Jail for men who helped steal £3m of luxury cars

Five men who were part of a gang who stole nearly 100 vehicles worth more than £3.4m across 11 counties have been jailed.

In some cases, they wore masks and balaclavas and were "stalking around houses while children and adults slept", Worcester Crown Court heard.

Some of the cars were worth more than £100,000 and the gang took them back to Worcestershire and Warwickshire before they were sold at times for no more than £3,000 days later.

Sentencing the five to a total of 31 years in prison, Judge Andrew Lockhart KC described their actions as "terrible" which caused "long-lasting" effects for their victims.

"You agreed to wreak havoc on their lives," he said, before adding: "Some of you wore masks and balaclavas, stalking around houses while children and adults slept."

Some victims told they court they felt "violated", while many opted to move house because they no longer "felt safe" and others even spoke of the thefts causing a "strain on [their] relationship".

In one case, a family left their home after it had been in their family for "several generations" due to the impact of the burglary, the court heard.

One victim told the court: "The lasting effect is still ongoing to this day. It still makes me sad.

"Our house has the underlying feeling of being violated."

She said she and her husband no longer spoke about the burglary because doing so made him "upset".

In another case, a man reported that his specially adapted vehicle was taken with his wheelchair in the boot. The wheelchair was then later recovered from a nearby ditch.

Another victim reported that his wife, who had been carrying their young baby, had fallen down the stairs during the gang's raid on their home.

On Thursday, Charlie Coombs, 22, of Grafton Lane, Alcester; Jack Stephens, 19, HMP YOI Featherstone; Wesley Hunt, 50, no fixed abode and 20-year-old Charlie Taylor-Bates were sentenced for two offences.

The men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit burglary and one count of conspiracy to conceal/disguise/transfer/remove criminal property during the same period.

Riley Reeve, 28, of Pitwell Lane, Evesham, also appeared and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit burglary.

Properties in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Powys, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire and Cambridgeshire were among those targeted.

Mr James Dunstan, representing the prosecution, also added cash and jewellery worth £119,000 was taken by the gang, which was made up of 12 people.

Dunstan said the gang would get into homes by forcing windows and doors, and would even search victim's bedrooms while they slept.

Det Con Simon Lloyd, of West Mercia Police, said: "This group was relentless. Every night it feels like they were out and about breaking into people's homes, and stealing their valuable cars.

"I think they were very much an opportunist bunch, we've found very little planning and that sort of thing."

He said the impact on the victims was "massive".

"We have victims well into their 90s who, when you talk to them about it, they still become upset about it," he added.

"Still to this day they become quite tearful. There's a lot of anger and a lot of understandable anger from the victims. It's their private space and it's where they should feel the most safe."

He also said the force was "really confident" everyone involved had been caught with six more members set to be sentenced on Friday.

Each defendant on Thursday was handed a concurrent sentence, with these jail terms:

• Coombs - eights years and three months (additional 96-month driving ban)
• Taylor-Bates - four years and 10 months (additional 77-month driving ban)
• Stephens - six years and four months (additional 86-month driving ban)
• Reeve - four years and nine months (additional 76-month driving ban)
• Hunt - seven years and two months (additional 91-month driving ban)

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