Gang jailed for thefts of vehicles
MEMBERS of a “sophisticated and organised” criminal gang which stole valuable vehicles across the Midlands have been jailed.
Luke Anderson, James Gillespie and John Selfridge took cars, vans and motorhomes in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Walsall between September 2019 and March 2020.
One theft involved a £35,000 motorhome from a Loughborough farm. A second motorhome, worth £41,500, was taken from an address in Newark.
Their crime spree culminated in the midnight theft of a cash machine from a convenience store in High Street, Blyth, Nottinghamshire.
Using a digger stolen hours earlier the gang pulled the ATM from the wall in the early hours of March 20 and placed it on the back of a stolen van.
The empty cash machine, which had contained about £43,000, was later discovered at a farm near Newark.
Anderson, Gillespie, and Selfridge were linked to the ATM theft by mobile phone data.
All three men appeared at Nottingham Crown Court.
Anderson, 29, currently of HMP Nottingham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal motor vehicles and conspiracy to steal.
He was sentenced to a total of three years in prison.
Gillespie, 29, of Cleveland Square, Newark, and Selfridge, 31, of no fixed abode, also admitted the same offences and were each jailed for a total of three years.
A fourth man, 23-year-old Tyler Mayall, also of HMP Nottingham, was not involved in the ATM theft but did admit to conspiracy to steal motor vehicles and was jailed for 15 months.
After the hearing, Detective Constable Andrew Brownless, said: “This was sophisticated and organised criminal gang that conspired to steal motor vehicles from across the region.
“Their activities brought considerable distress to their victims. I am delighted that they will now be serving these prison sentences.”