In court
Prolific car key burglars jailed

By Dan Santy 03/02 Updated: 09/02 11:46

THREE prolific car key burglars who stole £58,000 of property in just one month are behind bars.

The trio, 27-year-old Jason Wright, of Carlton Road, and 18-year-old Reece Hogben and 19-year-old Lewis Angell, both of Deepmore Road, were jailed for a total of six years and five months after being found guilty of a string of car key burglaries between April and May last year.

They targeted homes on Macbeth Close and Falstaff Drive in Rugby, as well as in Kenilworth, Warwick, Lighthorne Heath in Leamington and Sapcote in Leicestershire, during their burglary campaign.

The three would carefully plan the burglaries before breaking into homes and stealing the keys to cars parked outside on the driveway.

On some occasions the people living there woke up in the night to find the three intruders in their home.

DC Gary Hammond of Warwickshire Police said the three were caught after what he called an extensive and complicated investigation.

He added: "We are delighted at this result. Many people were affected by the prolific offending behaviour of these individuals and we feel these lengthy sentences rightly reflect the severity of the offences and the vulnerable nature of many of the victims.

"These sentences reflect the continued hard work by the burglary and the safer neighbourhood teams within those communities and Warwickshire Police’s commitment in protecting people from harm.

"We will continue to work to disrupt the activities of anyone we believe may be committing crime in Warwickshire and urge the public to call us with any information they may have that could help us reduce crime where they live."

At Coventry Crown Court yesterday (Thursday), Wright was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, while Hogben got two years and four months, and Angell nine months.

During the investigation police carried executed a number of search warrants and recovered some of the stolen cars and property.