£93,000 BMW 'chop-shopped' by jailed crooks after being stolen from Northampton

Two car thieves stole a £93,000 BMW from Northampton during a four-month spree which turned £1million-worth of luxury motors into a pile of car parts.

A court heard the pair conspired to pinch 26 vehicles including two BMWs from Grange Park, Mercedes, Range Rovers and a Ford Mustang which were broken up, probably for shipping out of the country.

The BMW 740D and a BMW M2 — worth £38,000 — were both stolen during the early hours of 28 February last year and delivered to a ‘chop-shop’ in Peterborough.

Juozas Baltors, 28, and 31-year-old Darius Lukauskas focused on high-end vehicles with keyless entry, using sophisticated ‘relay’ equipment to scan and obtain victims’ key frequencies from inside their homes, enabling them to fire up the engines and drive the vehicles away.

Baltors was finally arrested in Peterborough in April driving a BMW X5 with cloned number plates which had been stolen in Hampshire ten days earlier.

A search of the vehicle and his home in Figtree Walk, Peterborough, revealed ‘jamming’ devices and images on his mobile phone showed the dismantling of multiple high-value vehicles.

Officers also found keys to an industrial unit where they discovered two vehicles in the process of being broken up plus parts and number plates belonging to seven more stolen cars.

DC Craig Trevor, from Cambridgeshire’s Acquisitive Crime Team, said: “Baltors was initially charged with conspiracy to steal ten vehicles. However it was clear he was not working alone and this was just the tip of the iceberg.

“From his mobile phone, further stolen vehicles were identified as well as Lukauskas, who would call Baltors when he was on his way to Peterborough with a stolen vehicle.”

The pair both denied charges of conspiracy to steal 26 vehicles but were found guilty after a seven-day trial at Peterborough Crown Court and jailed for four-and-a-half years each.

Baltors was also convicted of breaching a deportation order after he returned to the UK under a different name just eight days after being deported by Kent Police in February last year. The deportation order came as a result of him being convicted of perjury, theft offences and possession of an offensive weapon in 2019.

PC Jeremy Turner, also of the Acquisitive Crime team, added: “This result today comes after many months of investigation into an organised crime group committing keyless vehicle thefts.

"Baltors and Lukauskas took advantage of flaws in modern vehicle security and took numerous steps to try to thwart a police investigation.

"I would strongly suggest all owners of keyless entry/start vehicles review their vehicle security. The best advice is to take a layered approach to protecting the vehicle in order to make it more difficult and time consuming to steal.

"Criminals look for the easiest option and will move on if they deem a theft will take too long.

“Contact your vehicle’s manufacturer for specific advice but also consider low-tech options such as pedal boxes, steering wheel locks, key fob suppression pouches/boxes, keeping vehicle keys away from your home’s windows and doors, parking non-keyless vehicles in a defensive manner to block in keyless vehicles and if you have barriers such as gates, bollards or a garage, use them.”