Car crime pair are locked up (From York Press)

Car crime pair are locked up

10:03am Monday 6th August 2012 in News By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

A PAIR of criminals who were part of a gang targeting homes in York and North Yorkshire to steal expensive cars have been jailed.

Christopher Bland, 35, and Adam Baldwin, 22, were jailed by a judge at York Crown Court after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods.

Bland was sentenced to two years and Baldwin to a year and nine months.

The pair, both from Bradford, were part of a team of criminals who targetted homes in Copmanthorpe , Dunnington and Tadcaster in June and July last year, breaking in and looking for car keys to steel expensive motors parked outside.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Michael Mettyear said: “You were hand-in-glove with those who were actually carrying out the burglaries, high-value goods were involved.

“A degree of sophisication was needed to carry out these burglaries on dwellings and you have a miserable record of offending going back a long way.”

The court heard how Bland and Baldwin were receiving the cars and taking them to Lancashire for disposal. They were linked to failed raids on two homes, one in Copmanthorpe where the owner had a £41,000 Jaguar and one in Dunnington with two BMWs in the driveway.

In both cases there were break-ins, but no car keys were found and no vehicles taken.

After a further break-in at a house in Turnpike Road, Tadcaster, on July 5, the keys to a Volvo and a Ford Mondeo parked in the drive way were taken, the owner discovered the cars, valued at £27,000, had gone at 7.30am.

The cars were later seen on CCTV in Lancashire with cloned numberplates and neither has since been recovered by police. Bland and Baldwin were arrested together in Bradford at 6.40pm on July 5 and the court heard how both had previous convictions for handling stolen goods.

For Bland, Ian Howarth said much of his previous offending was carried out when he was much younger and was linked to cocaine addiction.

He said: “I am told today he has rid himself of this addiction. He married last month and he has a young child and his wife has a child from a previous relationship and he is devoted to both the children.”

For Baldwin, Nigel Hamilton said his offending history was far less prolific than Bland’s and that he “bitterly regretted” his conduct.