Chop shop pair jailed after £50,000 police raid
Two men who ran a Black Country chop shop, which was found to have three stolen cars worth almost £50,000 when raided by police, have been jailed.
One car was partly dismantled with the serial numbers on the chassis and other parts scratched off, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard. The others were whole and one of these - a VW Golf - had been stolen from a pizza delivery driver just eight hours earlier, revealed Mr Richard Davenport, prosecuting.
The Golf had a tracker device which led police to the lock-up unit in Ezekeil Lane, Short Heath, Willenhall. Nobody was there when officers swooped in the early hours of February 19 last year but inquiries revealed it had been rented by Tony Cook and Gregory Taylor around a month earlier.
Inside was the Golf, stolen in Dudley the previous night, a £30,000 Audi taken during a car key burglary at a house in Wolverhampton on January 23 and a £15,000 Skoda Octavia snatched from Mr Alastair Norman whilst he was out of the vehicle opening the gate to Dudley Rifle Club on February 5.
The 59-year-old not only lost his car but was also robbed of the chance of realising his dream of representing Great Britain at prone shooting because the treasured .22 rifle he had used for 40 years was in the stolen vehicle and never recovered.
Mr Norman, who jumped onto the bonnet in a bid to stop the theft and was badly bruised when thrown into the road as the thief swerved from side to side to dislodge him, said: "Luckily I did not end up under the wheels. I was among the top 100 shooters in the country but have had to start from scratch again using a new rifle."
Cook was tracked down after ringing the owner of the unit following the raid to see if the CCTV had been working when police struck. He gave a false name but his voice was recognised and the mobile phone used to make the call was traced to him.
The 35-year-old roofer and father of two from Stroud Avenue, Willenhall, was arrested on May 23 and Taylor, also a family man involved with a gas fitting firm and living in Spills Meadow, Lower Gornal, gave himself up to police days later.
Both admitted three cases of handling stolen property and each was jailed for two years by Recorder Barry Berlin.
Recorder Berlin told them: "There is no evidence that you were involved in the theft of these vehicles or that it was stealing to order but those who stole or robbed the cars must have known where to take them. This was a professional, commercial car-ringing operation."
