Full throttle, half wit
Dozy crook reported his Porsche stolen – so police came to his home... and found fleet of flash cars that had been pinched
A CRIMINAL reported his Porsche missing only for police to discover he had 19 stolen cars – including several hidden in his home’s basement car park.
Chirag Patel, 39, reported his car as stolen in February 2015, but refused to give officers his own home address.
When police did visit the property in Croydon, south London, they discovered he had cars worth more than £700,000 – including a Porsche Cayenne, two Range Rovers and a Mercedes C-Class Coupe.
Five of these had false number plates and one had a personalised number plate identical to one on a vehicle also seen outside Patel’s parents’ address.
Patel had been using the vehicles – five of which were found in the basement of his home – in an ‘off-the-books’ rental business where cars were leased out to other criminals.
During the investigation, officers recovered 26 sets of car keys, lists of vehicles and registrations, machines for accessing onboard computers in vehicles, programming keys and a number of mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
A total of 19 stolen vehicles with an estimated value of £728,000 were linked to Patel and subsequently seized. It is not clear if the Porsche he phoned police about was among the 19 vehicles.
Nine sets of keys that had been stolen from Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Solihull, West Midlands, were also found. The cars had been stolen by unknown individuals during burglaries and keyless thefts across London between October 2012 and January 2015. The identities of the vehicles were concealed details behind of cars legitimate which insurance had been written off. They were stored at addresses owned by Patel and his family, as well as other associates. He had tried to claim to police he was just ‘unlucky’ to have bought so many stolen cars. But after a five-week trial at Croydon Crown Court, Patel was convicted of conspiracy to handle stolen goods in relation to stolen vehicles and keys discovered at his property. He was also found guilty of possession of criminal property in relation to more than £ 440,000 of unexplained cash deposits from two personal bank accounts in his name. He was jailed for eight years last week.
Acting Detective Sergeant Billy Clough from the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Patel played the leading role in a sophisticated operation to handle high-value, stolen vehicles, motivated only by sheer greed. He even attempted to convince the jury he was a legitimate businessman, who had simply been unlucky in obtaining such a vast quantity of stolen items, but the jury saw through this.’