Man jailed for handling 19 stolen cars ordered to pay back more than £1 million

2 December 2019, 08:49

A man who was jailed for handling 19 stolen cars has been ordered to pay back more than £1 million.

Chirag Patel was handed a confiscation order for the vehicles, which were valued at more than £700,000.

The 40-year-old, from Croydon, south London, was arrested in February 2015 when five luxury vehicles with false number plates were found in the basement of his home address.

Police say they then found 26 sets of car keys, lists of vehicles and registrations, equipment for accessing onboard computers, programming keys, numerous mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

They also found 19 stolen cars worth £728,000, nine sets of keys which had been stolen from Jaguar Land Rover's plant in Solihull in the West Midlands, and a laptop stolen from a Streatham property.

The investigation later showed Patel had been using the vehicles in an off-the-books vehicle rental business.

They were used in numerous burglaries and car thefts across London between October 2012 and January 2015, and were kept at properties belonging to Patel, his family or their associates.

Patel was last year sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to handle stolen goos and possession of criminal property relating to cash deposits.

On November 29 given a confiscation order for the vehicles, which were valued at more than £700,000, Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Patel has been given a ten-year default prison sentence if he does not repay the money owed.

Acting Detective Sergeant Billy Clough, who led the investigation, said: “The Met is committed to ensuring that individuals commit criminality are identified, prosecuted and their criminal assets are seized.

“The significant financial investigation undertaken by Detective Constable Nick Portman should also be recognised, without which substantial criminal assets would not have been recovered.”