Gang jailed after stealing lorries and their cargo from across the Black Country

Details of the crime spree were revealed as three men who played minor roles appeared before Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Valuable loads of aluminium, sheet metal and copper piping were taken between November 2016 and last October, the court was told.

Foreign drivers were lured from their vehicle while waiting for delivery yards to open, allowing the gang to drive off with the truck and its cargo, said Mr Graham Russell, prosecuting.

In one case a driver armed with a hammer put them to flight empty handed in Long Street, Walsall, while the gang were foiled by another who refused to leave the cab of his parked truck in Cradley Heath.

The gang used a listening device and deployed a tracker blocker to stop the movements of stolen lorries being monitored while escaping with a total haul worth £470,000.

Chase

The trucks were driven a short distance before the tractor unit was swapped for a cab on false plates. On August 17, one lorry with £55,000 worth of copper was taken.

Five days later a driver with copper valued at £89,000 was parked in Ocean Drive, Wednesbury when woken by 35-year-old Craig Mills who asked if he was ready to unload. The bogus worker went to the rear of the lorry before calling the driver out of his cab where his place was quickly taken by somebody else while Mills got into a waiting VW Golf spotted in Wolverhampton Road, Essington.

It was chased at up to 100mph along the M6 before it was stoppped with a stinger near junction 10. The occupants fled to a compound where Mills and Anthony Kennedy, aged 34, were arrested. The trailer and load were never recovered.

A £220,000 batch of tyres was stolen from Central Avenue, Cradley Heath on September 19 and on October 30 a lorry carrying £60,000 metal was taken from a Bilston company.

A tip the tractor unit had been replaced by a DAF unit in Court Lane, Wednesbury, led to it being traced and 44-year-old Thomas Arnold was driving.

The three defendants were not accused of involvement in any of the other thefts but Kennedy, from Davis Avenue, Tipton, and on licence after being freed early from a robbery sentence, admitted knowing of the widespread conspiracy, it was said.

Kennedy and Mills, of Galbraith Close, Coseley, both admitted conspiracy to steal.

The former was jailed for two years eight months while the latter, who has poor health, received a 12 month term suspended for two years.

Arnold from Neptune Street, Tipton admitted taking a vehicle without permission and got 20 weeks behind bars suspended for two years.