Gang jailed for theft of luxury keyless cars

The gang stole luxury cars, including Range Rovers, from driveways

Three men have been jailed for their parts in a sophisticated conspiracy to steal luxury keyless Land Rovers and Range Rovers worth more than £500,000 in total.

Osvaldas Milius, 28, Mindaugas Savickas, 34, and Kornelijus Girdeika, 26, from Peterborough, had all admitted conspiracy to steal and were jailed after a crown court hearing in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

Police said their haul included 16 Range Rovers and two Land Rover Discoverys, stolen from driveways in Peterborough, St Neots, Little Paxton, Alconbury Weald, Folksworth, Glinton, Ailsworth, Helpston and Skegness, in the early hours of the morning.

Prosecutors said Milius, from Lithuania, had twice breached deportation orders.

Osvaldas Milius was said to be the key player in the gang

Recorder George Keightley said the men had caused financial loss, fear and distress to vehicle owners, undermined Jaguar Land Rover and added to insurance problems.

He said their victims were people who had "worked hard" so they could afford luxury vehicles.

Cambridgeshire Police said 22 vehicles had been stolen in the county and in Lincolnshire between April and September 2024.

Officers said the three men had been "forensically linked" to stolen vehicles, many of which had been fitted with cloned number plates.

Mindaugas Savickas (left) and Kornelijus Girdeika played a lesser role, their lawyers claimed

Matthew Paul, prosecuting, told the hearing how police suspected that stolen vehicles were heading for eastern Europe and would be broken up for spare parts.

He said all three men had previous convictions and that Milius was the main player with a "long and serious" crime record in the UK and abroad.

Mr Paul said Milius had been imprisoned in the past and had twice breached deportation orders, and suggested he had returned to the UK "specifically to be involved in serious crime".

Milius, who also admitted a deportation order breach, owed a debt to a foreign gang, the judge was told.

A lawyer representing Milius said he had been under pressure from the gang and had stolen vehicles as a way to pay off the debt.

Savickas accepted responsibility for four thefts and Girdeika for eight, the judge was told.

Lawyers for the pair said they had played lesser roles.

The judge said evidence showed that both had been looking for "easy cash", but had played "significant roles".

Milius, of Overland Mews, was jailed for four years and five months; Savickas, of Dogsthorpe Road, for two years and nine months; and Girdeika, of Arkwright Way, for two years and eight months.

PC Craig Trevor added: "This gang conducted a sophisticated operation as they stole high performance vehicles with little thought for the impact their actions were having on others."

He said Jaguar Land Rover had "rolled out security updates" to help protect vehicles from the "tactics used in this case".