FOUR gang members have been jailed after police cracked a “sophisticated” £500,000 conspiracy to sell on stolen Land Rovers.

A fifth man received a suspended jail term for his part in the car ringing scam, which centered on two secluded sites in the Forest of Dean, and included a father and son.

The conspiracy involving 18 top-of-the-range Defenders, Discovery Sports and Evoque 4x4s came to light in June 2017 when a tracking device on a stolen motorhome led police to the Everything Land Rover (ELR) breakers yard on the New Dunn business park in Sling.

Officers who trawled through a month’s worth of CCTV footage found evidence of 17 other stolen vehicles with cloned plates going through the yard, with gang members seen burning plates and emptying and dismantling motors.

Bristol Crown Court heard last Friday (January 11) that the site belonged to 28-year-old Edward Barrington – previously known as Edward Fear – of Wellington Terrace in Newnham-on-Severn, who was also engaged in buying premises in Cannop Road, Parkend, where stolen vehicles were also dismantled.

The five, who officers believe were part of an organised crime gang (OCG), were sentenced following Operation Range, “a prolonged and complex investigation” by Gloucestershire Police’s CID.

Devices to open and start vehicles without a key were recovered by police, who say the conspiracy was part of a much larger enterprise running out of the London area.

Barrington, who Judge Mark Horton said was “central to the operation”, admitted conspiracy to handle stolen goods and was jailed for four years, to serve a minimum of two years with the remainder on license. He also faces a Proceeds of Crime Act Hearing.

Barrington’s father, Michael Fear, 58, of Parc Road, Usk, admitted two counts of handling stolen vehicles found at his home address.

Fear was sentenced to 26 months for the first count and 12 months concurrent for the second count, and must forfeit £19,000.

Kelvin Harding, 28, of Euston Road, Croydon, and Luke Heron, 25, of Kingston Road, Epsom, were both found guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods following a trial last November.

The duo were spotted on CCTV delivering vehicles which had been stolen from private driveways in London to the Sling yard. They were both jailed for four years to serve a minimum of two years with the remainder on license.

Stephen Goode, 45, of Gloucester Road, Coleford, admitted conspiracy to handle stolen goods involving the stripping down of stolen Land Rovers following their delivery to the ELR site, and was sentenced to six months in jail suspended for two years.

The judge said it was clear the conspiracy was a “professional and sophisticated operation” that had caused misery to many families.

The court heard that the conspiracy involved vehicles like Land Rover Discoveries and Range Rovers stolen from London, the south-east and the east Midlands. Some were sold on with cloned plates, while parts from those which were broken down were sold off as far away as Kenya and Cyprus.

Officers seized two devices from Heron and Harding – one used to physically unlock a vehicle, and another device which plugged into the on board diagnostics system of a car to start it.

Det Sgt Harry Li- mer, who led the investigation, said: “The ‘Legend’ device found at Luke Heron’s business premises plugged into the vehicles on board diagnostics system and allows you to carry out a range of tasks aimed at starting a vehicle with no key, removing existing keys and adding new keys as required.

“It is easily possible to obtain either stolen Jaguar Land Rover keys that aren’t programmed or to purchase replacement copy keys before reprogramming them with the device.

“A number of JLR keys were recovered from Everything Land Rover and were taken to JLR in Solihull to examine. It was established that these keys were “after-market” keys not programmed to a vehicle at the time of manufacture.”

The turbo decoder key seized from Harding was “a professional quality automotive key picker used to physically unlock a vehicle,” he added.

A Gloucestershire Police spokeswoman said that despite the OCG working from a rural community, it had a national impact by depriving many families of their means of transport across the country.

Following the sentencing, senior CID investigating officer Karen Wildin, said: “I am happy with the sentencing although to some it might seem that the actual sentencing they have got isn’t a lot for the amount of cars that have been through both the sites.

“However this is part of a much larger enterprise that was running out of the London area and we’ve managed to convict and put inside two members from the enterprise in London.

“They were the two that were responsible for bringing the stolen vehicles to the Forest of Dean. Without them Edward Barrington wouldn’t have been able to do what he was doing in both the Sling and Parkend site and a member of his staff wouldn’t have been convicted through being part of that enterprise by dismantling the vehicles.

“We’ve also got to take into consideration that other family members were involved, as Michael Fear, who is Edward Barrington’s father, was arrested in possession of two stolen vehicles, one of those being a Land Rover Discovery which had come from the London area, so I am happy with today’s result.”

Two other men – Gavin Wroe, 49, of Lords Gate, Coleford, and Daniel Hayler, 28, of Violet Gardens, Croydon – were both found not guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods following last November’s trial.