Croydon gang sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison collectively. Top right Harry Sales, top left Perry Jackson, botton right – Luke Jackson, bottom left Billy Harrison – Pic: Surrey Police
Four Croydon gang members have been sentenced to a total of 12 and a half years in jail, following their court hearing earlier this month.
The gang stole 53 cars, worth £3.7 million, over 12 months, in various counties in Southeast England.
They were finally arrested on April 26, 2023, by Surrey Police. Following the arrest, the police tried to build a case using call dates, witness testimonies, forensics, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) CCTV footage and intelligence.
A victim’s CCTV footage caught the gang members breaking into a Bentley, using the relay technique.
The relay technique is used by many car thieves to break into cars that do not use keys, such as Rolls Royce’s, Bentley’s and Range Rovers.
The technique involves using a master device to replicate the signal of the vehicle key, this signal is then transmitted into a smaller device, which copies the signal from the master device and unlocks the car.
Once inside the car, one of the members was seen driving it aggressively through the gates, damaging the car.
Additional jail terms
Luke Jackson, 28, was given three and a half years in prison, for stealing an additional 42 cars, worth £2.1 million, alongside two other burglaries, for which he received an additional 18 months in prison on top of the three and a half years.
Perry Lovejoy, 29, was also given additional months in prison. Over and above three years in prison, he was sentenced to nine more months on the account of dealing class B drugs, cannabis, for which he admitted guilt.
Billy Harrison and Harry Sales, who are 30 and 28 respectively, were only charged with the crimes they committed while in the gang. Both face imprisonment for three years each for car thefts.
Investigating Officer DC Matt Earl, said in a statement: “This was a large-scale investigation that was made possible by the hard-work and dedication of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, as well as the support and collaboration of other neighbouring police forces.
“The level of criminality that these four people undertook was significant and had a huge financial impact. These men acted out of pure greed and had no regard for how their crimes may affect the lives of their victims.
“We are glad that these criminals have been successfully brought to justice and will now have lots of time to think about their actions whilst sitting in prison.”
