Three men jailed for car thefts worth nearly £500,000 across Birmingham

Three men have been jailed after being involved in car thefts worth nearly £500,000 across the West Midlands.

Martin Islip, Lawson O’Neill and Anthony Stewart were sentenced on 12 May after being found guilty of conspiracy to steal 22 cars throughout 2019 worth more than £450,000 combined.

Islip and O’Neill targeted predominantly Fords, carrying out keyless car thefts at addresses in Staffordshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands by electronically programming blank keys to take control of the vehicles. This allowed them to take the cars without causing a disturbance and without having to break into the homes of the cars’ owners.

Islip and O’Neill were arrested in June 2019 while driving a car containing a number of Ford keys, tools, gloves and items of clothing. Stewart’s role was to collect and transport some of the stolen vehicles to Scotland, where he was arrested while driving one of the stolen cars.

After a police investigation, the three were linked to the locations of a number of car thefts in Chelmsley Wood, Shard End, Yardley, Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Kitts Green.

The trial of the three was delayed because of the Covid pandemic, but finally went ahead in March this year. Islip, 34, of Wheatstone Road, Wolverhampton, was given five and a half years in prison. O’Neill, 32, of Over Green Drive, Birmingham, was given three years in prison. Stewart, 39, of Cedar Road, Glasgow, was handed an 18-month consecutive sentence in addition to an earlier sentence.

What has West Midlands Police said?

The force has laucnhed a major new operation to target serious and organised crime across the West Midlands.

A statement read: “Operation Target sees West Midlands Police take a stand against a range of serious and organised crime offences ranging from drug dealing and burglary to cyber crime and fraud.

“Officers will be using local intelligence, seizing goods, carrying out warrants and targeting offenders as part of Op Target. Keep following our website and social media pages with the hashtag #OpTarget to see more of what we’ll be doing.”