[2025] EWCA Crim 1115

Between 27 June and 28 July 2022 four high-value vehicles were stolen from driveways in High Wycombe, Harpenden and Watford. Overnight on 28 June 2022 the complainant Mr Gopalai left his grey Range Rover Sport parked on his driveway in High Wycombe. He woke up at 7.30 am the next morning to find that it had been stolen without its keys. The vehicle was valued at £70,000. The Range Rover was recovered from Woodford Green. The vehicle's tracking company provided information that it had been stolen at 6.06 am and was left in Woodford Green at 7.13 am. ANPR cameras found the stolen vehicle travelling in convoy with a Mercedes, one of two vehicles which had been rented by the appellant Mr Salem.

The second vehicle was stolen overnight on 14 July 2022 from a road in Watford. The complainant, Mrs Kang, noticed that her vehicle had been stolen when she woke in the morning, having parked it on her driveway at around midnight. The vehicle was a Land Rover Discovery, worth £65,000. The complainant's vehicle was not captured on ANPR but the second of Mr Salem's hire cars was. This was a Mercedes E200 and was captured in the Watford area at the same time as the vehicle was stolen.

The third and fourth thefts occurred overnight on 26 July 2022 in Harpenden. The complainant Mr Reece's black Range Rover Velar, worth approximately £46,500, was stolen from Douglas Road and the complainant Mr Gurbuz's silver Range Rover Velar, worth just under £40,000, was stolen from Brackendale Grove.  Mr Gurbuz's neighbour, Mr Porter, told the police that he saw on his CCTV footage that the vehicle had been stolen at 4.31 am. ANPR showed the two vehicles being driven in convoy with Mr Salem's rented Mercedes E200 as they all moved clockwise round the M25 and into the northeast of London. The total value of the four thefts was just over £220,000. Only one of the stolen vehicles was recovered, that being Mr Gopalai's grey Range Rover Sport, the first one to have been stolen.

The appellant Mr Salem was arrested on 26 July 2022 in the Mercedes E200. His home address was searched, and drugs were found, about which we need say no more.

Cell site data was analysed and showed the appellants moving from the location of their home addresses in Romford and Ilford. They were noted to have travelled to the offence locations, spending up to several hours there before returning to their home addresses. Call data showed the appellants in communication with each other in the lead up to the offences being committed. There were periods of quiet when the thefts were being committed before communications started again on the return journeys.

Mr Salem was further interviewed on 9 February 2023 and again answered no comment to all questions put to him.

Mr Sami was interviewed on 17 February 2023 and provided a prepared statement simply denying being involved in a conspiracy.