Showjumper was getaway driver for £700k car thieves
‘Violation of their homes’
A TEENAGE showjumper acted as a getaway driver for a gang that stole luxury cars worth almost £700,000.
Olympic hopeful Kirstie Covele drove her accomplices to houses in the early hours of the morning.
Wearing ski masks and armed with screwdrivers, the gang stole car keys from homes as owners slept.
Among the vehicles stolen were Mercedes, BMWs and Audis that were either sold with false plates or stripped of parts and then torched.
Covele, 18, drove the gang to 13 of the 33 burglaries they carried out across Kent and south-east London over two months last summer.
She was yesterday sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution after admitting conspiracy to steal.
The eight-strong team, most of whom were teenagers, stole cars with a total value of £696,500.
Several raids were committed in one night, with some owners having two cars stolen off their driveways. The gang even had the audacity to target the same road on consecutive nights.
Covele, an aspiring model, was caught after traffic cameras spotted her driving in convoy with some of the stolen vehi- cles. After her arrest, she admitted that she drove the gang around, but said she did not know about their criminal activities and was simply paid petrol money.
The teenager was described in court as a hugely ambitious young woman of ‘respectable upbringing’ who hoped to compete at the next Olympics.
Sam Thomas, defending, said she became involved with the gang at a time of ‘trauma, distress and stress’ caused by her father suffering from motor neurone disease. Covele, a former agricultural college student from Orpington in south-east London, looked stunned as she was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution after admitting conspiracy to steal.
Sentencing seven of the gang at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday, Judge Adele Williams said the burglaries ‘bore the hallmarks’ of professional crime.
‘Tools were used to gain access and many of the householders were asleep in their homes,’ she said.
‘I have read victim statements and they make plain, not surprisingly, how badly affected they have been by these crimes, with feelings of violation of their homes as well as the financial loss and inconvenience they have suffered.
‘The houses were targeted for their high-value cars. They were disposed of either in their entirety or for parts. I have no doubt there were those higher up the chain who were older and more sophisticated criminals than you, but each of you played your part in this criminality.’
The court was told that the gang was paid £1,500 for each car stolen between June 12 and August 14 last year.
Five of them were arrested within hours of the final burglary in Hartley, Kent, in which two Mercedes worth a total of £90,000 were stolen.
Prosecutor Shannon Revel said the defendants were identified through mobile phone data and traffic cameras. ‘In groups of two or more, they broke into residential properties and in the majority the residents were at home,’ she said.
‘ They stole cars ranging from Vauxhall Astras to Mercedes and BMWs. Tools were used to enter the properties. Some of the defendants wore masks and gloves.’
Thomas Ripley, a 21-yearold father of three from St Mary Cray in south-east London, was described as the ‘controlling mind’ of the gang. He was involved in 21 breakins and thefts and was jailed for five years after admitting conspiracy to burgle.
Jack Hever, 20, Freddie Friend, 17, and Harry Turner, 16, also admitted conspiracy to burgle. Hever, an engineering apprentice from Orpington, was sentenced to three years in a young offenders’ institution. Friend, also from Orpington, was given a twoyear detention and training order, and Turner, from Northfleet in Kent, was sentenced to an 18-month detention and training order.
Shannon Kelynack, 19, from Orpington, Charlie Parker, 16, also from Orpington, and a 16-year- old girl who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal.
Kelynack was jailed for two years in a young offenders’ institution and Parker was sentenced to a 12- month detention and training order.
A court order banning the naming of those under 18 was lifted by Judge Williams, except in the case of the 16year-old girl, who was not in court yesterday because she was sitting a GCSE exam. She will be sentenced today.