Pair jailed - one from Reading - over theft of 26 posh cars including BMWs, Audis and Range Rovers - worth a total of over one million pounds

Juozas Baltors, 28, and Darius Lukauskas, 31, stole 26 luxury cars across Reading, Bracknell and ten counties in less than 100 days - with the total car value coming to £1,010,813.

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The pair used sophisticated 'relay' equipment to gain access to the keyless-entry vehicles, by scanning and obtaining the victims' vehicle key frequencies from inside their homes.

This allowed them to start up the cars without the need for keys, and drive them to a 'chop-shop' in Peterborough, Cambs., where they were dismantled and believed to have been shipped out of the country.

Baltors, of Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, and Lukauskas, of Reading, were convicted on Tuesday of conspiracy to steal vehicles, following a seven-day trial at Peterborough Crown Court.

And yesterday (January 27) the pair were jailed for four years and six months each.

Peterborough Crown Court

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.

He was sentenced to an additional three months for breaching the deportation order, and disqualified from driving for three years - starting from his release from prison - for driving while uninsured.

PC Jeremy Turner, from Cambridgeshire Constabulary's Acquisitive Crime Team, said: "Members of organised crime groups deliver stolen vehicles to 'chop shops'.

"They often conceal the vehicle's identity initially using cloned number plates, and block tracker signals using 'jamming' devices which stop the vehicle's location from being emitted.

"The valuable vehicle parts are then loaded onto lorries and exported out of the country."

On April 13, 2020, Baltors was stopped by road policing officers in Peterborough after they spotted a BMW X5 being driven on cloned number plates.

Checks revealed the BMW had in fact been stolen from Hampshire ten days prior, and a search of the vehicle revealed a 'jamming' device in the glovebox, resulting in Baltors' arrest.

Police then searched his home in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, where they uncovered two further industrial-strength jamming devices, and images on his mobile phone showing the dismantling of multiple high-value vehicles.

The following day, officers used a set of keys found on Baltors at his time of arrest to open up an industrial unit in Ivatt Way, Peterborough.

POLICE

There, they found two vehicles in the process of being dismantled - an Audi Q7 which had been stolen a few hours prior in Maidenhead, and a BMW 7 series stolen from Leicester on 9 April.

Parked outside the unit was a Mercedes Sprinter Luton van which was displaying cloned number plates, and had been stolen from the Walsall area of the West Midlands on 17 February.

Searches of the unit uncovered further cloned number plates, two further jamming devices and parts and number plates belonging to seven further stolen vehicles that had been dismantled.

DC Craig Trevor, also from Cambridgeshire's Acquisitive Crime Team, said: "Baltors was initially charged with conspiracy to steal 10 vehicles.

"However it was clear Baltors 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 another offender, Darius Lukauskas, who would call Baltors when he was on his way to Peterborough with a stolen vehicle."

On 26 June, Lukauskas, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, was arrested in Berkshire and later charged with conspiracy to steal vehicles.

The pair both denied charges of conspiracy to steal 26 vehicles.

But at the conclusion of a seven-day trial at Peterborough Crown Court on Tuesday, both men were found guilty.

PC Turner added: "This result today comes after many months of investigation into an organised crime group committing keyless vehicle thefts.

"In just 97 days, Baltors and Lukauskas played pivotal roles in stealing more than a million pounds worth of vehicles from across 10 counties.

"They 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.

"This could include pedal boxes, steering wheel locks, key fob suppression pouches/boxes, keeping vehicle keys away from your home's windows and doors.

"It is also a good idea to park 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."

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PICTURED: BMW M2 (Wikimedia)

The full list of car thefts that Baltors and Lukauskas were linked to in 2020 is as follows:

1. Mercedes Sprinter Luton van stolen from Blakenall Bloxwich, Walsall, West Midlands on February 17 (£13,720)

2. Range Rover Sport stolen from Datchet, Slough, Berkshire on February 19 (£28,000)

3. BMW M2 stolen from Grange Park, Northampton on February 28 (£38,000)

4. BMW 740D stolen from Grange Park, Northampton on February 28 (£93,000)

5. Mercedes GLE 350 stolen from Withy Mead, Chingford, London on March 4 (£38,000)

6. BMW X5 stolen from Upminster, Essex on March 6 (£32,000)

7. BMW 760LI stolen from Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire on March 6 (£28,000)

8. BMW 435D stolen from Amersham, Buckinghamshire on March 6 (£20,800)

9. Mercedes GLC 250 stolen from Wokingham, Berkshire on March 7 (£32,000)

10. BMW X5 stolen from Tring, Hertfordshire on March 12 (£70,000)

11. BMW 760LI stolen from Tring, Hertfordshire on March 12 (£57,700)

12. BMW M2 stolen from Alton, Hampshire on March 20 (£31,600)

13. BMW X5 stolen from Wokingham, Berkshire on March 21 (£25,000)

14. BMW 220D from Wokingham, Berkshire on March 21 (£17,500)

15. BMW 420I stolen from Harrow, Middlesex on March 21 (£23,000)

16. Range Rover Sport stolen from Horton Heath, Hampshire on March 29 - later recovered (£48,000); 17. BMW 420D stolen from Bracknell, Berkshire on March 30 (£24,000)

18. Mercedes GLE 350 stolen from Grays, Essex on March 31 (£59,000)

19. BMW X5 stolen from Hartley Whitney, Hampshire on April 4 (£60,000)

20. Ford Mustang GT stolen from Woking, Surrey on April 7 (£27,700)

21. BMW X4 stolen from Hamilton, Leicester on April 9 (£37,500)

22. BMW 740E stolen from Syston, Leicester on April 9 (£35,000)

23. Audi Q7 stolen from Maidenhead, Berkshire on April 14 (£74,000)

24. BMW 730 stolen from Shinfield, Berkshire on May 13 (£29,000)

25. BMW 530 stolen from Hartley Whitney, Hampshire on May 14 (£47,827)

26. Mercedes 250 stolen from Twyford, Berkshire on May 23 (£20,466).