A gang of crooked car breakers who dismantled £240,000 ($345,000) worth of high value stolen vehicles and sold them on eBay have been told their sentences were not a day too long.
The trio disguised the illegal nature of the vehicles by selling them bit by bit on the internet and were each jailed for three and a half years in July, after pleading guilty to conspiring to handle stolen goods. Yesterday, all three asked London’s Criminal Appeal Court to reduce their sentences claiming they were far too tough.
The conspiracy operated between 2012 and May 2014, using rented workshops. The stolen vehicles, including valuable Audis and BMWs taken in burglaries, were broken down into parts.
They were then sold as spares on eBay. Expensive diagnostic and unlocking tools, enabling the crooks to strip down Jaguars and Land Rovers, were also found by police.
Lawyers for the trio today argued that they had been punished too harshly and not given enough credit for their guilty pleas. “Whilst these sentences were harsh, they were in our judgment justified” said Justice Cook who dismissed the appeals.