As he pulled up in his silver C220 AMG Mercedes at Manchester Airport, a holidaymaker handed over his keys to a valet. It was the best way, he thought, to make sure it would be kept safe while he was away.
But, unknowingly he had been duped. In one simple exchange, criminals operating an international scam in stolen high-end vehicles now had their hands on his £50,000 pride and joy.
The gang had created false documents to give the impression they were representatives of a legitimate controlled parking company. When the owner returned from his trip he contacted the real company and discovered he had been deceived.
And they were brazen.
Another car was stolen off a drive by the gang whilst the owner was on holiday. On one occasion, they walked into a house whilst the owners were in the garden and stole the keys.
In a separate incident a man was threatened to stay inside his house in Failsworth with his three-year-old daughter whilst they stole his car. If he refused, the would kill her.
READ MORE: International crime gang operating £3m ‘chop shop’ plot in Greater Manchester smashed
Cruising around a smart estate, one of the gang commented “Fresh” as they drove by a pristine white Range Rover Sport. Soon after the vehicle was in the back of a shipping container as another asset in a lucrative criminal enterprise. The clip from a phone was recovered by police who smashed the group behind a prolific spree of thefts.
The vehicle was one of scores stolen by an Oldham-based firm who called themselves “The Company”, and hit on a way of making millions from stealing high-end cars to order and sending them abroad. Others were stripped in one of seven chop shops across Greater Manchester and the parts sold.
Even when police started making arrests they continued to steal vehicles and just opened new chop shops if others were raided and closed. Their arrogance was reflected in incriminating messages from their group chat they called ‘The Company’. One said ‘five-o busted the yard again’ in relation to a police raid in Wigan in October 2019, and then joked they should start packing their jail kit.
In other footage recovered by police, Land Rovers and Range Rovers are seen being driven into containers and as one vehicle arrives at a chop shop to be cut up for parts a gang member is heard to say “the beginning of the end”.
From February 2019 to January 2021, the gang – suspected of being about 20 strong – stole 90 vehicles amounting to an overall loss of £3m. They focused on high value motors – Range Rovers in particular were favourite targets and a police investigation identified that 35 had been taken.
But their haul also included Land Rovers, Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, and Porsches.
Range Rovers and Land Rovers were sent to Turkey and Dubai for a British ex-pat market and nationals unaware of the stolen status of the vehicles.
The police investigation began in June 2019 when an Audi A4 Saloon, which was hired from a dealership in Oldham, was due to be returned. The dealership received a call saying it couldn’t be returned on time as it was delayed in London. When the dealership decided to verify these facts, they saw that the car was not in London, but it was in an industrial unit in Stockfield Mill, Chadderton.
When police gained entry to the unit, they discovered the rented Audi, plus parts from five other stolen vehicles with further items which belonged to three further stolen vehicles. Once the location of Stockfield Mill had been discovered by police, the conspirators needed a new premises for their business. Undeterred they rented a new unit in Wigan.
Less than two weeks later, police discovered this unit, when the group made the same mistake of stealing a rented Mercedes. CCTV from the premises showed two of the gang purchasing the vehicle. One later called the car hire company and the police, falsely claiming it had been stolen from his drive. The tracking device fitted in the car disproved this statement and led police to the second unit in Wigan. The gang also used units in Stockport and Radcliffe.
Detective Chief Inspector Roger Smethurst of GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Divsion said: “We were never convinced we got to the bottom of who was the contact involved at the other end of the chain, who was responsible in Dubai or the Middle East for arranging for the containers to be collected from ships. Clearly someone was creating the market abroad we never identified of who that was.”
He said the gang took Land Rovers and Range Rovers because they were easy to tell if they were locked or not because the wing mirrors were out.
“Then they had a piece of equipment which allowed them to bypass the ignition”, he said. “Footage we recovered showed them spotting a car with the wing mirrors out, getting in it, and starting the car within 20 to 30 seconds and driving off.
“They were then driven to chop shops and either given new identities or there were containers laid up at the chop shop and they would go straight into the container or be broken down into all its parts, engines, doors, bonnet. All you were left with was a lump of metal which was the chassis. The bits were going into containers too and then shipped out of the country.
“We know that there was a container off-loaded in Turkey that had two stolen vehicles in it, one we stopped at Liverpool Docks that was the same, and one bound for the Middle East that was still on a ship that we managed to get put on another ship and sent back. But we know there are others that have made it to Dubai and other places in the Middle East and the assumption is they were full of stolen vehicles and parts.
“We think some have ended up in United Arab Emirates and neighbouring states where a lot of British ex-pats have gone or they are seen as a vehicle of status and choice. The other issue in those countries is that the availability of parts is scarce so they knew there was a ready market. Some of the cars were being sold as legitimate vehicles. There will be people in those countries who have no idea they are driving stolen vehicles.
“At one stage there were lists floating around amongst the crime group of the type of vehicle they were seeking to steal. These specified particular, make, model and colour. There were clearly customers lined up for these vehicles.”
Police believe the number of cars stolen by the gang “could run into the hundreds” in total. “When we look at the number of chop shops they were linked to there were seven. Police would raid one, shut it down, recover parts and vehicles, commence an investigation, and within days or a few weeks another premises had been rented and they had set up again. A lot the units were secluded, old industrial buildings with roller shutters, which a lot of the time would be down.
“The premises would look shut. In fact at night stolen vehicles would turn up. The vehicle would go in and in some cases we know that some members of the OCG were under pressure to cut up two a night. That indicates the scale of criminality that was ongoing. There were so arrogant and brazen at what they were doing and clearly making huge sums of money,” said DCI Smethurst.
Some car parts were stolen online. DCI Smethurst said: “When we start to look at Proceeds of Crime hearings they will become a big issue in this case. We are looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds that we are seeking to recover. Various members (of the OCG) have looked to invest in property, and family members who have no other source of income. The only way it would appear this money has been generated is through this gang.”
In January 2022, six men were sentenced in connection with the conspiracy.
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Asif Hussain, then 44, of Tonge Moor Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to handle stolen goods, conspiracy to export and fraud. He was jailed for 15 years.
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Hadir Ali, then 27, of Lee Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods and conspiracy to export. He was jailed for 11 years.
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Saijid Jangharia, then 37, of Willows Lane, Bolton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to export. He was jailed for ten years.
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Ibraaz Shafique, then 23, of Camberwell Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods, conspiracy to export and fraud. He was jailed for five years.
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Tayub Hasnain, then 37, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to handle stolen goods and was jailed for five years and six months.
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Mohammed Abdullah, then 23, of Lee Street, Oldham, received a two year suspended prison sentence after admitting conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
This week, a further seven men were sentenced.
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Asif Matadar, 39, of Melbourne Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.
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Shewaz Rehman, 29, of Hereford Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to conspiring to handle stolen goods and a separate count of controlling and coercive behaviour committed against his wife. He was jailed for a total of four years and nine months.
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Imran Taj, 43, of Malvern Road, Oldham, pleaded guilty to conspiring to handle stolen goods. He was jailed for four years.
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Zeeshan Ali, 34, of Ennerdale Terrance, Tameside, pleaded guilty to conspiring to handle stolen goods. He was jailed for three years and nine months.
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Adam Elwood, 30, of Kingston Avenue, Chadderton, pleaded guilty conspiring to handle stolen goods, handling stolen goods, possession with intent to supply a class B drug, possession of cocaine, dangerous driving and possession of cannabis. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
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Mohammed Irfan, 26, of Malvern Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to conspiring to handle stolen goods. He was jailed for three years.
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James Hopkinson, 29, of Seatoller Court, Oldham, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods. He was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for a year, and was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
It is believed the gang also linked up with criminals in London and the West Midlands when searching for Range Rovers and Land Rovers. The gang used hire cars as taxis to move thieves around. “The driver would take thieves to locations or once a car had been stolen take them home from the chop shop – or out to steal another car,” said DCI Smethurst.
