Gang who stole £90k Range Rovers from owners’ driveways caught after making ‘amateur hour’ blunder
GANGSTERS behind a car theft racket that stole £90,000 Range Rovers were busted after an “amateur hour” blunder.
Over £250,000 of luxury SUV’s and prestige sports cars were pinched from driveways by the auto-thieves in just four months.
Among the stolen fleet was a £46,000 all-electric Range Rover Velar, a £30,000 Mazda 3 hatchback and a £90,000 Range Rover Sport.
Other motors included a £30,000 Land Rover and a Range Rover Evoque worth £13,500.
The crooks – who operated across Bedfordshire and Norfolk – would strike at night as car owners were tucked up in bed.
On one occasion the gang smashed into an owner’s house to get hold of car keys.
But they were busted by sophisticated tracking systems built into the very cars the gang were stealing.
The thugs had made no effort to remove the devices from the cars, EDP reported.
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Cops later tracked down the vehicles to locations in Norwich and the gang was arrested.
Jonathan Fearnley, 33, of Norwich, Stevie Quigg, 32, of Bedford, and Ben Valentine, 37, from Stevenage, Herts, were jointly charged with multiple counts of theft of a motor vehicle.
They relate to five occasions where vehicles were stolen from the Broadland area of Norfolk between April 16 and July 20 last year.
Oliver Haswell, representing Quigg, said the operation had not been “overly sophisticated”.
He told Norwich Crown Court: “The vehicles all had trackers and were recovered and no attempt had been made to tamper with the electronics to hide their locations.
“This was amateur hour at best which is probably why they were caught.”
Andrew Oliver, for Valentine, said he stole the £30,000 Mazda “intending to sleep in it” after becoming homeless and splitting from his partner.
Appearing via video link from HMP Norwich, Quigg was jailed for 21 months after previously pleading guilty to car theft and assaulting police when arrested.
Valentine was sentenced to 12 months for stealing four vehicles.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Fearnley after he failed to appear in court to be sentenced.