Car thief jailed for stealing more than 60 cars in West Midlands

A prolific car thief has been jailed for stealing more than 60 cars in West Midlands before scrapping them and making thousands of pounds.

Between 2020 and 2022, Eddie McDonagh, 41, travelled around West Midlands in his tow truck looking for cars to steal. He would lift the cars from outside the owners addresses and place them on his tow truck before driving off.

The 41-year-old made thousands through scrapping the cars, sometimes before the owners had even realised they had gone. While he used the same tow truck he often changed the VRM plate to evade getting caught.

On a couple of occasions, McDonough stole two cars on the same day from outside different addresses in Birmingham and was captured on a number of CCTV cameras transporting the vehicles across the city to be scrapped.

When he was confronted by the owner of a car he was trying to steal in Harborne McDonough punched the man and left with the vehicle.

On 23 January officers executed a warrant at his home in Kingstanding where the tow truck and high vis jackets he was captured wearing on CCTV were seized. Leaflets were also found in the tow truck advertising ‘Eddy’s Cars’ and ‘Cash for Cars’.

At Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday (July 11) McDonough pleaded guilty to 64 counts of theft of motor vehicles and fraud and was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison.

PC Choudhury from the Vehicle Crime Taskforce, said: “McDonough was brazen in his offending, he really thought he would continue to get away with stealing other people’s cars and profiting from it. This was a fulltime job for McDonough who made tens of thousands of pounds through what he was doing.

“We are committed to tackling vehicle crime and would always urge the public to get in touch if they have any information. It can really make a difference.”