Six men have been jailed after lorries and their loads including Toblerone chocolate and whiskey were stolen in Kent.
Detectives said the men, mainly from the Liverpool area, were “organised, professional” criminals who stole lorries and their goods to sell on.
One of the stolen trailers contained £201,000 worth of Toblerone, which has never been recovered.
Whisky valued at £23,000 was stolen from the trailer of another lorry parked in a haulage yard, after a perimeter fence was cut.
In another incident, a lorry tractor unit without a trailer was taken from a haulage yard in Whitfield. CCTV later revealed four offenders using an angle-grinder on the lock of the main gate.
Cloned number plates were fitted to the lorry before it was driven north to a haulage yard in Tarleton, Lancashire, Kent police said.
Detectives found evidence that the gang travelled between Merseyside and Kent before and after the offences took place, often in convoys.
At Maidstone crown court, the six men were jailed for their roles in the thefts involving three lorries, which took place in April 2013.
Lee Gilmore, 33, John Dahl, 44, and Darren Price, 39, all from Liverpool, and Graham Ascroft, 55 from Preston, Lancashire, were each jailed for four years and eight months. Jeffrey Hamid, 31, from Liverpool, received four and a half years
and Stuart Nicolson, 48, from Dover, was jailed for four years.
Det Sgt Jon Saxby said: “These sentences reflect the seriousness of these offences – organised, professional thieves who stole lorries and lorry loads to sell on.
“Ascroft, it appears, made the contacts to sell the haul on, while Price and others travelled the country to target hauliers to steal the vehicles and the consignments.
“While this group made a quick sale, legitimate businesses and hauliers suffered greatly with property stolen, deliveries cancelled, excess payments on insurance and not to mention the inconvenience to their customers,” he said.
