Man jailed over stolen car parts worth more than £300,000 found near Malmesbury
Osvaldas Ubarevicius was found guilty following a trial at Winchester Crown Court
A member of an organised crime group responsible for transporting stolen high-value car parts to a lock-up near Malmesbury for export overseas has been jailed.
Osvaldas Ubarevicius, 31, formerly of Browns Green, Birmingham, was found guilty of conspiring to dishonestly receive stolen goods and possessing criminal property following a trial at Winchester Crown Court.
Ubarevicius, a Lithuanian national, was jailed for 30 months at a hearing today (22 October)after which he is due to be deported.
On 22nd April this year, police received a report from a private tracking company that a chop shop had been located on farmland near Malmesbury.
The site was full of high-value vehicles that had been dismantled into parts.
Officers attended the lock-up, and initial enquiries indicated the site was likely part of an organised crime network revolving around the export of stolen car parts.
CCTV enquiries linked a white Sprinter van to the site.
Two days later, the van was stopped by Hertfordshire Police.
Parts of a vehicle that had been stolen that same morning were found in the back of the van, which itself turned out to be stolen.
The driver, Ubarevicius, was arrested.
He was later charged with two offences and remanded into custody.
Investigating officer DC Sue McCartney from CID said: "This operation involved at least £325,000 worth of stolen vehicle parts, with their value likely to increase significantly once sold on.
"Ubarevicius played an important role in this criminal network, which profited from the theft and dismantling of high-value vehicles, causing considerable financial loss, disruption and anxiety to victims.
"I would like to thank the company who reported the lock up in Malmesbury to us, as well as our Forensic Collision Investigation Unit (FCIU), who proactively offered their expertise and spent several weeks examining, identifying, recovering and seizing a significant number of exhibits, in addition to arranging their secure storage.
"This was an excellent example of collaborative working across different departments, resulting in today's sentence.
"Wider enquiries remain ongoing as we continue to identify others involved and disrupt this type of organised criminality."