Trio jailed over £500k car scam
THREE men have been jailed for their roles in a ‘planned, professional and targeted’ vehicles conspiracy across the north of England worth nearly £500,000.
Matthew Clegg and Timothy Bolchover ‘worked together as a team’ with codefendant Lewis Hester to steal and ‘fence’ high value cars and plant machinery from homes and businesses, a court heard.
They were stolen over a nine-month period and were then either used by the defendants or broken down into parts at Hester’s yard and sold to others.
One of the recipients was Great Harwood scrapyard boss Tommy Smith who was jailed in August 2019 for 79 months in connection with a ‘major stolen goods operation’.
Prosecutor Alexander Langhorn told Preston Crown Court the defendants were ‘not a direct subsidiary’ to gang leader Smith but instead ‘operated under Mr Smith’s agency and influence which was pervasive throughout the local area’.
The court heard Clegg, of Beech Close, Rishton, stole 12 vehicles and handled 18 others with a total value of £489,000. Bolchover, of Lion Street, Church, stole eight vehicles and handled 16 others worth £474,000, while Hester, of Lyndhurst Avenue, Blackburn, stole four vehicles worth £142,000 and handled nine others worth £162,000.
Mr Longhorn said: “While the trio’s activities were disrupted by police raids in November 2018, Mr Hester remained undeterred. Long after the other two defendants were charged with conspiracy he continued to be involved in receiving, handling and selling stolen vehicles and vehicle parts.”
The prosecutor said it was a ‘sophisticated’ operation with ‘significant planning’ and involved the removal or disabling of tracking devices and the cloning of registration plates.
Some of the plant machinery was stolen from the North West and taken to the North East.
Clegg, Hester and Bolchover pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
Zachary Sanderson, of Simpson Street, Hapton, also appeared in the dock after pleading guilty to a charge of handling stolen goods.
Mr Longhorn said this related to a stolen Fiat 500 worth £10,000 and was used by Sanderson on one occasion in March 2018.
Defence barrister Daniel Chadwick, representing
Clegg, said his client ‘fully accepts his guilt on the basis of the prosecution opening’ and also accepts that he will receive a sentence of immediate custody.
Mr Chadwick said dadof-two Clegg, 34, was ‘not the mastermind or brains’ behind the conspiracy and that the ‘bulk of criminality’ involving the defendant was at the end of 2017 and the start of 2018.
Patrick Williamson, defending Bolchover, said the offences are ‘clearly serious’ but asked the court to ‘consider anxiously’ the role he played within the conspiracy.
He said: “As with any activity involving a number of individuals, there will naturally be a hierarchy. Mr Bolchover was at the coalface of the activity and is towards the lower end of the hierarchy.”
Mr Williamson said the 33-year-old defendant has ‘turned a significant corner’ since his last release from prison and has not committed any further offences.
Joe Boyd, representing Sanderson, said his client was 18 years old at the time of committing the handling offence and that the Fiat 500 was ‘only in his possession for a few hours’.
He told the court how the defendant, now 20, had no previous convictions and is not in breach of any court orders.
A pre-sentence report for
Sanderson stated that he is also in a ‘stable job and stable relationship’ and is an ‘unofficial carer’ for a family member.
Judge Simon Newell jailed Bolchover for 46 months and sentenced Clegg to 42 months in prison.
He said: “These were planned, professional, targeted and a persistent series of offences.”
Sanderson was given a 12-month community order and a three-month curfew requirement.
In a separate sentencing hearing Hester, 25, was given a 27-month jail sentence.