July 10, 2025 - 544 views
A 35-year-old man has today been jailed for his involvement in a spate of high value car thefts.
Tomas Politovas, of Kettering Road, Northampton, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to seven charges at Mold Crown Court last month.
The charges related to a series of vehicle thefts that occurred across North Wales and Cheshire between January and March of this year. During this period, eight vehicles - with a cumulative value that exceeded £320,000 – were stolen.
Committed primarily in the early hours of the morning, thefts were reported in Llandudno, Llandudno Junction, Penrhyn Bay, Abergele, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Northwich and Crewe.
Investigating officers established that Politovas was a member for a Lithuanian organised crime gang operating from the Northamptonshire area.
The gang would travel the country conducting reconnaissance, targeting predominantly BMW and Mercedes vehicles.
Offenders utilised sophisticated wireless signal interception equipment during these incidents, as well as GPS signal jammers.
The thieves also travelled equipped with pre-prepared cloned number plates to match the make/model/colour of target vehicles and duct tape to cover security cameras.
Politovas was apprehended by officers during the early hours of 22 March 2025, and he was subsequently charged and remanded in custody.
Investigating officers undertook detailed telecommunication work, forensic analysis of the scenes and a review of encrypted chat communications to secure evidence for his prosecution.
Detective Constable Ash Davies said: “This was a lengthy and complex investigation, in which it was established that Politovas played an integral role in the gang’s criminality.
“The sentence imposed upon Politovas today reflects the seriousness of his offending.
“Car theft is not a victimless crime. Acquisitive offending remains a force priority because we know of the devastating effect it can have on victims.
“As in this case, we’ll continue to dismantle the organised criminal groups behind car thefts by identifying the people, patterns of offending and the places involved in these crimes and work with colleagues in other forces, showing that we will stop at nothing to tackle this issue.”
