In a recent court hearing, a strange case of “car tracing” was discussed. The case was about a gang of car thieves who targeted luxury vehicles at airport car parks and fitted them with tracking devices so they could steal them when the owners had returned home. These thieves used sophisticated cloning devices to replicate “contactless” keys at the airport car parks. Weeks, sometimes months later, the gang would use the tracker to locate the cars and steal them from the owners’ home, leaving police “scratching their heads”, the jury was told.
The gang netted cars worth between £50,000 pounds and £70,000 pounds but their haul also included a Mercedes, a Bentley Continental, and a McLaren sports car which were “considerably” more expensive, the prosecution said. The group was caught out when undercover police carried out a covert operation of car tracing using a Trojan car, the court was told.
The organised crime gang targeted hire cars and was also said to have used an unidentified insider at an airport valet parking business to gain access to the cars. One of the defendants is also accused of selecting vehicles brought to his automotive body-shop for repairs. Other vehicles were accessed via scams where minor damage was caused to them and then a recommended repairer was suggested, who make a cloned copy of the vehicle’s key, the jury was told.
Prosecutors at Reading Crown Court told the jury that the “main man” Khalid Mahmood was not on trial as he had already admitted conspiracy to steal motor vehicles. Neil Moore, opening the case, told the jury: “Essentially those involved found a way to make another key to the car, unbeknown to the owner, which enabled them to drive away in the car at any time they wanted to, without any damage or any alarms to sound.” Mr Moore said 10 of the vehicles involved were hire cars, while a further nine were interfered with while they were kept at Stress-Free Parking, a valet parking operation at Luton Airport, Beds.
After making the illegal keys the gang would need to trace the cars in order to steal them, said Mr Moore. To do this, they hid GPS tracking devices inside the car bodywork, connecting them to the vehicle’s electric circuits. The prosecution claim that in an effort to cover their tracks the would-be thieves wiped the third key details off the investigation car that was sent to them by the police. This spy car had tracking devices fitted within it, that would tell the police of the miscreants’ movements and aid in car tracing.
The prosecutor said that Mahmood admitted his role in vehicles being taken to Antwerp, in Belgium, before being shipped on, primarily to East Africa, but not all stories have been brought to light.
The trial, before Judge Richard Parkes QC on car tracing, continues.