Men linked to professional car theft gang are jailed for a total of almost 50 years

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Galley: Seven men linked to professional car theft gang

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Seven men linked to the theft of more than £300,000 worth of cars were today locked up for a total of almost 50 years.

The men connected to the professional crime gang were all sentenced at Teesside Crown Court this morning.

Six of the men were embroiled in a well-organised campaign of planned burglaries to steal high-value motors.

They were linked to 26 burglaries and 27 stolen cars in Middlesbrough, Stockton, Thornaby and Eaglescliffe (see map below) from September 2012 to April 2013.

Judge John Walford told them: "This was clearly planned, well organised and involved targeting the homes of the owners of valuable and desirable cars.

"The fact that the police investigation was as protracted as it was reflects the cunning and resourcefulness which was used in a order to avoid detection.

"Each of you admit certain involvement but because you are all friends, you must have known the scale of what was going on.

"There must, in my judgment, be a degree of collective responsibility for the whole."

They systematically targeted homes - up to three in one night - to steal car keys and drive away, usually when the owners were inside, often at night, sometimes while they slept.

Other belongings were also stolen including items of sentimental value, said the judge.

They carefully got rid of the cars, worth a total of well over £300,000, using false number plates.

The judge told Trevor Keenan, 30, who admitted involvement in 15 burglaries: "You were at the heart of this conspiracy coordinating the activities of others.

"You must be treated as the main conspirator. You're very much the oldest of those in the dock."

He jailed Keenan for nine years and four months.

Keenan drove valuable cars, renovated his home, took a holiday to Egypt and had photos of vehicles parked around Middlesbrough in his home, the court had been told.

The judge said Keenan was helped mainly by Ashley Brown, 23, who was jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Ashley Brown was involved in eight burglaries and saw offending as "a way of life", the court heard.

Lee-Jay Brown, 20, also helped Keenan and played a part in five burglaries. He was sent to a young offenders' institution for six years and nine months.

Donovan Hackleton, 21, admitted involvement in nine burglaries - he is already serving an 18-month sentence for one of them - and asked for another 16 burglaries to be taken into account.

He was jailed for nine years.

Brad Anderson, 20, who also had a role in eight burglaries, was sent to a young offenders' institution for eight-and-a-half years.

Luke O’Neill, 20, who was involved in removing cars after three burglaries, was sent to a young offenders' institution for two years.

Keenan, of Keith Road, Grove Hill, Middlesbrough; Ashley Brown, of Askham Close, Middlesbrough; Lee-Jay Brown, of Holme House Prison; Hackleton, of Ayresome Street, Middlesbrough; Anderson, of Brompton Street, Middlesbrough; and O’Neill, of West Lane, Whinney Banks, Middlesbrough, all admitted conspiracy to burgle. Anderson also admitted a separate charge of vehicle taking.

The six had more than 320 previous offences between them.

Two more men - mechanic Philip Johnson, 39, of Rutherglen Walk, Eaglescliffe, and John Wilkes, 37, of Lulsgate, Thornaby - admitted handling stolen goods.

Both said they did not know the cars came from burglaries.

Johnson was jailed for two years and Wilkes was given a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years with 200 hours' unpaid work.

Three other men with links to the conspiracy were previously jailed for a total of just over seven years for burglaries.

Teesside Crown Court has heard how victims were left anxious, afraid, traumatised and counting the costs of the burglaries.

Some had to move house afterwards.

The judge said: "Burglary is an extremely serious offence because of the effect it has on its victims, and there are a lot of victims in this case."

He said he hoped the criminals had been moved, as some claimed they were, by statements about the effects on victims.

And he said it was striking that many of the offenders were young with "appalling" records.

"Clear it is that you've spent a good deal of your adolescence embarking on behaviour which has harmed other people and the community in general," he said.

Five cars worth a total of £58,000 have still not been recovered, 14 were found, four were crashed and three were recovered in parts.

The six conspirators were arrested 50 times between them during the plot, but without direct evidence they were bailed, and carried on burgling.

At one point, two of the conspirators spotted police watching them and said: “You’ll have to try harder than that to hide.”

The judge told the conspirators: "This is evidence of your determination to go on offending and your lack of respect for authority and the law."

The police mounted a complex six-month operation to catch the gang, with 30 officers involved in the operation costing about £350,000.

There were more than 200 witnesses including 14 undercover officers.

With little fingerprint or forensic evidence, officers relied on telephone, surveillance, eyewitness, tracker and number plate recognition evidence.

Judge Walford commended the "painstaking and thorough work" and careful research of Cleveland Police detectives in the case and a Crown Prosecution Service case worker.