Gang behind £500k Black Country car thefts jailed after five-month crime frenzy
Key figures in a gang of young crooks who stole more than £500,000 worth of luxury cars from Black Country homes during a five month crime spree were behind bars today.
The following is a full list of the cars stolen by the gang and the various other crimes and attempted crimes carried out in 2014:
3/4 April. Address in Nottingham £30,000 Audi A5 stolen.
13 May. Hampshire Close, Tamworth. Burglars disturbed and made off without stealing two cars on the drive.
9 Aug. Andrews Close, Brierley Hill. Audi A6 £41,000, £21,000 Peugeot and £25,000 Vauxhall Insignia stolen.
12 Aug. Bernard Road, Oldbury. BMW M1 worth £20,000 stolen.
19/20 Aug. Oakbarn Road, Hurst Green. £35,000 Range Rover stolen.
19/20 Aug. Gower Road, Howley Grange. Laptop and car key stolen but vehicle could not be reached.
19/20 Aug. Jasmin Croft, Kings Heath. Audi A3 stolen.
21/22 Aug. Yew Street, Merridale. £45,500 Audi RS5.
23 Aug. Barrs Road, Cradley Heath. BMW worth £22,000 and £7,000 Vauxhall Meriva stolen.
24/25 Aug. Wetherby Way, Stratford upon Avon. Golf GTI valued £27,000 stolen.
27 Aug. Timbertree Crescent, Cradley Heath. Burglars gain entry but nothing stolen.
27 Aug. Defendant Dunn caught after terrifying high speed chase.
28 Aug. Bicton Drive, Brierley Hill. BMW 4 worth £36,000 and £48,000 BMW 520M stolen.
28/29 Aug. Brickhouse Road, Rowley Regis. VW Jeta stolen.
28/29 Aug. Dale Road, Oldswinford. £50,000 Audi Q7 stolen.
1 Sept. Quarry Lane, Halesowen. £35,000 Range Rover stolen.
4/5 Sept. The Lawley, Halesowen. £30,000 Audi stolen.
9 Sept. Shotgun incident at Cafe Licious, Tat Bank Road, Langley.
11 Sept. Brown, Gordon and Khan arrested after being caught about to burgle Audi garage at Halesowen.
Their leader —19-year-old Callum Brown — also terrified women with a sawn-off shotgun after a row with other customers in a cafe, a judge heard.
Watch footage of the gang smashing into a police car
Reiss Dunn — one of the foot soldiers — led officers on a terrifying 90mph chase through 30mph limit residential streets during which he deliberately wrecked one police car and badly damaged another while at the wheel of a stolen car.
The thieves stole more than 20 cars while staging at least 16 burglaries and attempted break-ins — sometimes committing two on the same night — between April and September 2014.
They drove off in a fleet of top-of-the-range BMWs and Audis worth up to £50,000 each through stealing ignition keys from the home of the owner. The gang also had a £5,500 device that programmes car keys for specific vehicles and a lock pick.
Most of the cars were taken to a 'chop shop' and cannibalised for spare parts or spirited out of the country while others were used with false plates as 'run arounds' by gang members — six of whom were locked up for up to four and a half years each at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday afternoon.
Teams struck at addresses as far afield as Nottingham, Stratford-upon-Avon and Newcastle-under Lyme but the bulk of the break-ins happened in the Black Country, revealed Mr Philip Bradley, prosecuting.
The main players were Brown, Kieran Gordon, aged 19, and 26-year-old Mohammed Khan who organised disposal of the stolen cars, one of which — a £45,500 Audi RS5 — was found on a ramp in a Birmingham 'chop shop' with the wheels, doors and other parts already removed just hours after being stolen from an address in Yew Street, Merridale.
Kieran Gordon and Conrad Ashe played important roles in the burglaries while Dunn, Aaron Simpson, aged 26, and 28-year-old Jason Hadley had lesser roles, it was said.
Judge Nicholas Webb said it was a 'miracle' that nobody was killed by Dunn, aged 25, during one of the worst cases of dangerous driving he had seen on August 27 2014 when he deliberately drove into two police cars after being cornered outside his home in Dunsdale Road, Erdington, before driving off with an officer still clinging to the stolen Insignia.
The policeman had to let go and Dunn led pursuing officers on a five-mile high speed chase that ended when tyres of the car disintegrated.
On September 9 2014 Brown - driving a stolen BMW - returned with a shotgun and Gordon to the Cafe Licious in Tat Bank Road, Langley to discover two men with whom he had argued minutes earlier had left. He was screaming 'Where are they? I am going to shoot them.'
He then pointed the gun at a teenage girl - who 'froze' with fear - and also chased her boyfriend in an unsuccessful bid to discover where the missing men had gone, the court heard.
Two days later he was caught with Gordon and Khan outside an Audi dealership in Halesowen armed with the key programmer and lock pick. They had keys to a BMW and Audi stolen in earlier burglaries.
Brown also had a string of tell tale pictures on his phone that included the double barrelled shotgun that has never been found, handguns and drugs.
A team of detectives then worked backwards using cell site phone evidence and other details to pin point crimes.
Judge Webb told Brown: "You are a determined and dangerous criminal far more advanced than your years."
All admitted conspiracy to steal cars while Brown and Gordon further pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm and Dunn admitted dangerous driving.
Brown, of no fixed address, was given four and a half years detention
Gordon from Mill Road, Cradley Heath got four years four months detention
Khan, of Walford Road, Sparkhill was jailed for four years
Dunn received three years eight months prison
Simpson of Dunsdale Road, Erdington got two and a half years
Ashe, of Insworth Drive in Castle Vale, received 18 months detention
Hadley, of Gainford Road, Kingstanding, was given a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.
