Two car thieves have been jailed for stealing 59 Ford Fiestas worth more than £366,000 in a five-month crime spree. Kaine Guest-Scott, 22, and Theon Lynch, 21, targeted train stations and park and rides across the Midlands in broad daylight.
They used transmitter devices to open the cars, which were registered between 2012 and 2017, without triggering the alarms. The brazen crooks then broke steering locks with angle grinders and reprogrammed blank keys before driving away.
The pair became so expert in stealing the cars that CCTV captured them pinching one in just 90 seconds. Between June and November last year they stole 59 Ford Fiestas worth £366,000, which police say were then stripped for parts.
West Midlands Police launched a major investigation and Guest-Scott and Lynch were arrested last November. CCTV captured the pair targeting Fiestas in car parks where commuters often left their vehicles while they travelled to work.
On September 14 the pair arrived at The Hawthorns station car park in a red Ford Fiesta belonging to Lynch. They left the car a few roads away before heading to the station car park and stealing another Fiesta.
On October 20, at around 2.15pm, they were filmed at Rowley Regis car park stealing another Ford Fiesta. Inside the car was the victim’s credit card, which the pair were caught on CCTV using at a shop later that day.
On November 14 Guest-Scott was arrested at his home despite jumping out of a window to escape. A week later Lynch was also arrested.
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Following a search of both addresses, police recovered clothing that matched what the pair were wearing in the CCTV. Phones were also seized and analysis placed Lynch at the car parks and the shop where a stolen bank card was used.
Transmitter devices, blank Ford keys, and specialist auto locksmith tools, including a turbo decoder to defeat car door locks and reprogramming devices were also recovered. The pair both admitted conspiracy to commit theft of motor vehicle covering 59 thefts, theft of a bank card and fraud at Birmingham Crown Court. Guest-Scott, of Coseley, was jailed for four years while Lynch, of West Bromwich, was sentenced to three years and one month in prison.
Sergeant Mitch Darby, from the Vehicle Crime Taskforce, said: “This is a great result and has meant that two prolific car thieves have been brought to justice and prevented from stealing any more cars. Guest-Scott and Lynch brazenly committed these crimes again and again in the middle of the day when their unsuspected victims were at work who would return to these car parks to find that their car had gone.”
