UK police recovered $1.3 million worth of supercars from secret 'chop shop'
- UK cops uncovered $1.3 million worth of supercars
- The chop shop was part of a criminal gang’s enterprise
- The stolen cars ranged from Ferraris to Bentleys
Published on Aug 13, 2024 at 7:14 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Aug 14, 2024 at 5:40 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Police in Essex, UK, uncovered $1.3 million worth of supercars from a criminal chop shop.
The stolen cars ranged from Ferraris to Bentleys.
The gang’s secret workshop stripped the supercars and sold them for their parts.
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The chop shop
Essex Police’s Stolen Vehicle Intelligence Unit revealed images of the moment in 2023 they uncovered the ‘chop shop’.
Inside, they recovered stolen supercars that had been stripped for their parts.
The specialist unit amped up efforts to bring down criminal gangs targeting luxury cars.
“Our work is dedicated to the disruption of organized criminal gangs and we make sure car thieves are never comfortable in Essex,” specialist officer, PC Paul Gerrish, said.
“We aim to make this a hostile county for car thieves to operate in.
“Our work stretches beyond recovering individual stolen cars and encompasses the wider network of criminality behind each theft.
“Every year, we track down more stolen vehicles and as we do, we build up a bigger and better intelligence picture.”
The stolen supercars
Over the space of a few months, the specialist police unit, comprising of husband and wife duo Hannah Gerrish and PC Paul Gerrish and PC Phil Pentelow, was able to reunite some special cars with their rightful owners.
These included a Rolls Royce, a Bentley Bentayga, and several Range Rovers.
They’d also been able to locate and recover Ferraris and Aston Martins.
The unit recovered $15.4 million in stolen cars in 12 months via 15 chop shops and 50 shipping containers of stolen vehicles and parts.
They were probably destined to be transported to the Middle East or Africa.
The crime wave
While car thefts leaped by 25 percent in 2022, the team’s work saw a fall of 8.5 percent between April and June 2024.
A method called keyless car theft, also known as relay theft including two or more people, is used.
It allows thieves to take luxury vehicles without physically damaging them.
This is done via electronic key fobs and a device called a keyless repeater, which extends their range.
Criminals are able to do this standing outside a house with a car parked outside.
It tricks the car into thinking the key fob is closer than it is.
Then thieves can remotely unlock the car and take them.
Thieves can then sell, strip, or ship the car to where they can get the most bang for their buck.
By obtaining false identities, thieves can distribute stolen cars within the UK.
“Our work doesn’t just encompass the recovery of high-end cars,” PC Pentelow said.
“Our dismantling of chop shops and our intelligence-led work takes into consideration vehicles of all values and types.
“We are very aware that victims rely on their vehicles as far more than a mode of transport.
“In most cases your car is the second-highest value purchased item in your life, and people work hard to get them.
“We do not accept when criminals show no care or consideration for this fact.
“We also find it unacceptable when these criminals happily put other members of the public at risk by using these stolen vehicles on public roads.”
Meanwhile, Hyundai’s anti-theft update has reduced vehicle thefts by 64 percent.
Unlike the Cybertruck, which routinely stops would-be-thieves in their tracks, these cars don’t have these high-tech anti-theft features.
Cars from the two automakers have parts worth stealing, like the Kia EV 9’s wheels and the extensive interior inside modern Hyundais.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
