POLICE have been praised for foiling a £500,000 car-ringing scam after two Mid Cheshire men behind it were jailed on Friday.
William Bernard Drinkwater, 29, of Fairfield Road, Leftwich, will serve half of an 11-month prison sentence, and Anthony Patrick Bland, 24, of Grampian Way, Winsford, will serve half of an eight-month term after both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to receive stolen goods at Chester Crown Court.
Drinkwater, often known as 'Bernie', admitted handling 11 of the 29 cars between January 2001 and December 2004 and Bland admitted handling nine. Their co-defendant Gary Mark Meadows, 38, from Congleton, was ordered to complete a two-year rehabilitation order. Drinkwater faces a proceeds of crime hearing next month.
The specialist police operation lasted more than two years, beginning in 2003 when officers identified one stolen car and began uncovering links to others being sold through motor trade magazines.
They became convinced that stolen cars, usually taken in 'hook and cane' burglaries, were being disguised and passed off as other vehicles which the trio had bought from salvage yards.
Painstakingly, the team of four officers carrying out the investigation tracked down 29 'ringed' vehicles across England and Wales.
Police caught the trio red-handed in October 2003 when a £25,000 Audi TT when a tracking device was traced to a garage on Dene Drive in Winsford.
His Honour Judge Steven Clarke said: 'When people are involved in car-ringing they are cynically taking hard-earned money from people.'
Reg Scam
POLICE claim around £500,000 went through bank accounts belonging to William Drinkwater, the mastermind behind the scam.
Sgt Stewart Sheer said: 'Even that doesn't represent the entire scale of the criminal operation.
'This was possibly the biggest crime of its type we have come across in Cheshire.
'They changed the vehicle identification numbers of stolen cars with those taken from salvaged vehicles they had bought.
'If the colour of the vehicle or some other detail on the salvaged car's logbook didn't fit, they used false names and sent notification of the change to the DVLA.
'That way, they obtained a new registration document which looked right.
'Vehicle crime is complicated and we had to investigate every detail.
'We spent 12 months simply recovering vehicles from all across the country, interviewing the people who had bought them and checking the documents.
'Those people were the real victims here. If you buy a stolen car you don't own it. It usually belongs to the insurance company who have paid out on the theft claim. The buyers have lost anything from £7,000 to more than £10,000.
'If a bargain looks too good to be true, it probably is. At least this group will not be cheating anyone else.'
'Lance Corporal' of operation
ANTHONY Patrick Bland, 24, of Grampian Way, Winsford, was an 'important player' in the scam, the court heard.
Prosecuting, Steven Everett said that William Bernard Drinkwater, 29, of Leftwich, was the 'mastermind' of the operation who had tried to 'point the finger' at Bland and Gary Mark Meadows, 38, from Congleton.
But Mr Everett said: 'He [Bland] was an important player. He played an important role in ensuring the stolen cars were ringed with the crashed cars and made sure they were advertised and sold to innocent members of the public.
'Meadows and Bland both allowed their addresses to be used for receiving DVLA log books and all three allowed their phone numbers to be used.'
Defending, Simon Christie said Bland was sensible and courageous enough to enter the earliest guilty plea of the defendants.
His Honour Judge Steven Clarke described Bland and Meadows as the 'Lance-Corporals' and Drinkwater as the 'Sergeant' of the operation.
Judge Clarke said: 'One of the major purchases that anybody makes in their life is that of a motor car. It's important therefore that when anybody is buying such a valuable item is that it's legitimate.
'At some stage it was all going to come home to roost - that was inevitable. At some stage there was going to be a paper trail to lead back to you.'
