AN “organised” car theft ring have been sentenced after stolen cars worth £200,000 were discovered at a “chop shop”.
Jack Whiten-Simpson, of Chestnut Grove, Southend, appeared at Basildon Crown Court today alongside Joe Higgs, 32, Lee Howard, 34, Shane McHugh, 32, and Johnnie Scamp, 34, to be sentenced for conspiracy to steal vehicles.
Multiple vehicles including Range Rovers reported stolen from Southend were discovered in states of dismantlement, some with false plates and vehicle identification numbers (VINs) in what Judge Samantha Leigh called an “organised” criminal enterprise.
The court heard police traced a silver land Rover Discovery stolen in London to the garage operated by members of the Scamp family on Love Lane in Aveley in 2019, which the prosecution describing the site as a “chop shop”.
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Police also found a van, owned by McHugh, of Havvey Fields, Waltham Abbey, which contained an etching machine used to create false licence plates, as well as message exchanges on a phone owned by Scamp, of Love Lane, with Higgs discussing “breaking up” vehicles and dividing cash.
Judge Leigh said: “The facts of this case are that on July 29, having been alerted to a stolen silver Land Rover Discovery, police traced the vehicle to the site in Aveley.
“At the site officers discovered a number of vehicles which had reported stolen reaching a value just short of £200,000, many of these vehicles had been refitted with DNA and fingerprint evidence connecting these men with the vehicles.
“Messages between the defendants show coordination between them and that this was an organised criminal enterprise.
“There were additional vehicles, including a Ford Transit van owned by McHugh which contained a key device and a laptop with software used in conjunction with an engraving device used to falsify VINs.”
Judge Leigh acknowledged the case had been long running and the police’s hard work in getting it to trial, with the original trial being delayed in 2022 due to the large volume of high-priority cases.
All five men entered guilty pleas to the offences. Scamp, was sentenced to 21 months in prison suspended for 18 months
Higgs, a lag who has three previous convictions for conspiracy to steal vehicles, was handed a 24-month suspended sentence in light of time served for other offences since 2019 with Judge Leigh commenting: “He is a thief, this is what he does.”
The judge said McHugh played a “critical” role in the outfit by “disguising” the stolen vehicles with false plates and VINs, he was handed a 20-month sentence suspended for 18 months.
Howard, of Lindsey Street, Epping, who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for unrelated offences, was handed 16 months to be served with his concurrent sentence.
Whiten-Simpson, 25, was given a 17-month suspended sentence for his involvement.
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