A BRAZEN gang of car thieves who stole dozens of luxury motors before filming themselves joyriding in the cars have been jailed.
Waqar Khan, 25, Harris Haroon, 20, Mohammed Akleem Ali, 18, and Bilal Khan, 20, loitered around car parks in Birmingham and Solihull looking for motors to nick.
The gang would film themselves joyriding in the stolen motors[/caption]
Video footage shows the theives using the stolen cars to do doughnuts in a car park[/caption]
The four men were caught and jailed following a police investigation[/caption]
The gang would target expensive brands, stealing more than 40 cars between January and July last year.
The brazen group of thieves flaunted the stolen motors on WhatsApp and SnapChat.
Video footage captured by the gang during their crimes showed them posing beside the stolen vehicles, joyriding them and in some cases they even filming themselves stealing the cars.
Shocking footage of the thieves shows them using the stolen motors to do doughnuts around a car park and speed along a quiet road at night.
One clip shows one of the gang members spinning a stolen blue BMW round and round in a car park as his mates watch on.
Another shows several members of the gang in a stolen car, speeding down a residential street.
The gang used Waqar Khan’s BMW as a stakeout vehicle and getaway car.
In June a Toyota Hilux was stolen from a carpark on Holliday Street in Birmingham.
The motor had a tracker fitted and was later found on James Street, Tyseley.
CCTV captured Waqar Khan arrive at James Street in the stolen Hilux before fleeing in his black BMW, which was being driven by Bilal Khan.
The investigation following the thefts found that the BMW was regularly used to stakeout potential target vehicles.
Two days before, the BMW was also spotted at a car park where another expensive motor was pilfered.
Khan dropped off another individual in the carpark to steal the car before both fled the scene in convoy.
A probe launched by cops found this was a common pattern for the gang and managed to link the group to dozens of other car thefts.
The group targetted expensive motors[/caption]
The group would attempt to sell the motors back to their rightful owners[/caption]
Waqar Khan was part of a gang that stole 40 cars[/caption]
The brazen group would also share screenshots of stolen car posts from local Facebook pages with each other.
At times the brazen car thieves would reach out to victims and blackmail them into buying their own cars back.
On one occasion they asked a victim to pay them £4,000 to return a stolen car.
If the gang discovered that the cars had trackers they would rip them out and replace them with their own.
If the stolen motor wasn’t recovered they would then reach out to potential buyers across the country.
One buyer came all the way from Middlesbrough to buy a stolen Toyota Hilux which was later recovered from Stockton-on-Tees, cops said.
The gangs spree came to an end when they were arrested in July 2024, their phones and the equipment they used to steal the cars were seized.
In April this year, all four pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal motor vehicles and last Thursday they were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.
Harris Haroon, aged 20, of Whittington Oval, Birmingham was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institution.
Bilal Khan, aged 28, of Hob Moor Road, Birmingham received a two year suspended sentence.
Mohammed Akleem Ali, aged 18, of St Benedicts Road, Birmingham was handed a 36-month Youth Supervision Order and ordered to participate in a Restorative Justice intervention programme.
PC Junaid Ali from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “We do not underestimate the impact of having a vehicle stolen has on people.
“Not only is it an inconvenience, but it makes people feel vulnerable and scared.
“This group were prolific and treated their offending as a business enterprise.
“They committed these crimes again and again, stealing all types of cars and selling them on. But by doing so, they incriminated themselves.
“Our forensic investigators managed to interrogate their handsets and find lots of the material they filmed and sent to each other bragging about their criminality that ultimately caught them out.
“This is a great result and has meant that four prolific car thieves have been brought to justice.
“We always act on information from the public. If something doesn’t feel right, always report it to us because your information does make a difference.”
Mohammed Akleem Ali photographed himself in the stolen vehicles[/caption]
Bilal Kahn was part of the brazen gang of theives[/caption]
Harris Haroon and his friends tried to sell the stolen motors across the UK[/caption]
