A GANG of four who stole 33 Land Rover Defenders across a huge area, including the Gloucestershire and Avon and Somerset police force patches, have been jailed for a total of nearly 16 years.
Benjamin Hobbs, Leonard Hodgkins, Jimmy Butler and David Hodgkins were each convicted of conspiracy to commit theft of vehicles between September 2024 and May last year.
The charges related to the thefts of 34 vehicles including the Land Rovers that were worth more than £600,000 from the Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, West Mercia, Dyfed-Powys, Sussex and Devon & Cornwall force areas.
They were sentenced to a total of 15 years and nine months in prison at court on Friday, September 18.
The gang targeted the high-value Land Rover Defenders over an eight-month period.
They stole them from locations including Cheltenham, Bath, Tewkesbury, Hartpury, Newent and Bredon.
Defenders were also taken from Droitwich, Malvern, Tenbury Wells, Suckley and Norton.
In Herefordshire, they were stolen from Leominster, Bromyard, Storridge and Kingsland.
Across the border in Wales, Defenders were also taken from Churchstoke and Clyro in Powys.
The offences occurred between September 2024 and May last year.
An investigation called Operation Liondale was launched by West Mercia Police after Butler’s arrest in November last year.
During his arrest, distinctive items of clothing seen on CCTV of the suspects committing the offences were found in Butler’s caravan.
His co-conspirators were arrested on November 11 last year.
Mobile phones seized from them corroborated they used them when they travelled in convoy with the stolen vehicles and the mission vehicles, which included a blue Toyota Yaris and later a red Volkswagen Golf.
Hobbs owned a workshop in Bristol that was used as a ‘chop shop’ - an illegal enterprise that deals in stolen car parts - where the stolen Land Rovers were taken by the other conspirators.
Parts from the stolen cars, documents and a jacket from one of the vehicles were found by officers in the chop shop - some of which were identified by the owners or confirmed by using the keys in the ‘bulkheads’ of the vehicles.
Automatic number-plate recognition and phone forensics were also used in investigation of the crimes.
Read more
Coffee chain with more than 2,500 shops to close South Glos branch
Legendary 80s band among big names to play in Gloucestershire next year
Stately home in area used to film ‘Meghan Markle’ Netflix show
Three of the men changed their pleas to guilty at a trial at Hereford Crown Court which concluded on Friday.
Hobbs, 35, of Beesmoor Road, Coalpit Heath, was jailed for four years and four months.
Leonard Hodgkins, 50, of Marlborough Gardens, Malvern, Worcestershire, was jailed for four years and nine months.
Butler, 41, of Pershore Lane, Hindlip, Worcestershire, was jailed for three years and eight months.
David Hodgkins, 40, of The Furlong, Powick, Worcestershire, pleaded guilty to the same charges on December 8 last year.
He was sentenced to three years in jail on Friday.
Detective Sergeant Mark Jones of Hereford Reactive CID, who was the lead investigator for Op Liondale, said that day: “This was a complex but ultimately successful investigation that tracked down and prosecuted this gang of car thieves, so we are pleased to get these sentences today as their criminality harmed many people in our force area and neighbouring forces too.
“We know it often seems like car thieves get away with it, but we hope this result shows we will always work hard to bring these offenders before the courts and try to halt the impact their actions have on our communities.”
Share