Ice bandits: How the police put the heat on car theft trio (From The Bolton News)

Ice bandits: How the police put the heat on car theft trio

7:37am Friday 10th July 2009 in

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THEY were organised, ruthless and systematic — a gang devoid of morals and concerned only with making money.

When they struck, they moved quickly and efficiently, stealing cars and vans to order in a matter of seconds.

They even gave themselves a name — The Ice Bandits — as their favourite method was to head out on frosty mornings and steal cars which had been left running by their owners while they de-frosted.

But today two of the three men are behind bars, following an undercover police operation which lasted 11 months and saw detectives staking-out their homes and tracking their mobile phone calls to build up a map of their movements.

Ringleaders John Paul Perritt and Trevor Jones worked side-by-side, developing a system which would allow them to steal 16 vehicles between January and August, 2008.

Some vehicles went on to be used in armed robberies while others were sold to unsuspecting buyers from as far away as Dumfries in Scotland, Peterborough and Wrexham.

They mainly stole middle-ranged cars — the most expensive being an Audi A4, worth £20,000, which was stolen from Atherton — and even travelled as far as Cheshire and Yorkshire to carry out their crimes.

Perritt and Jones targeted vehicles which had been left unattended by their owners with the keys left in the ignition as they de-frosted on cold mornings.

Detectives quickly realised that while the thefts seemed opportunistic, the way in which they went looking for victims was “organised and systematic”.

They would watch people’s routines and then strike days later. On some days they would take more than one vehicle in quick succession.

They would then “abandon” the cars in case they were fitted with a tracker device and recovered by the police — only going back for the vehicle when the coast was clear.

Perritt and Jones would fit the vehicles with number plates they had stolen.

They treated their “work” seriously and were on the road before daybreak.

But their constant mobile phone conversations left a trail which the police were able to map, showing how their movements matched a wave of car thefts.

Det Sgt Craig Cuthbert, of Bolton’s proactive vehicle crime unit, said: “They were opportunistic but they knew that they could get rid of these decent cars, via websites like Autotrader, and some of them may well have been stolen to order.” David Jones only joined The Ice Bandits after March 17, 2008, when Perritt was arrested following a high-speed police chase through Bolton which saw him drive a stolen Mondeo the wrong way up Moss Street, Farnworth.

He then turned onto Market Street causing a number of other motorists to swerve and mount the kerb to avoid a crash.

The car was driven quickly along a number of roads, including a pedestrian area, before re-emerging onto Market Street and then turning into Bridge Street.

The chase continued through Farnworth, with Perritt driving at speeds of up to 70mph in 30mph zones until he crashed into a Citroen Saxo.

He ran from the car but was cornered in a garden by a police officer. Perritt was charged with dangerous driving —and his driving duties in the scam were taken over by Jones.

The fact that Jones was a legal driver and owned his own car made him a useful accomplice who would not draw attention from the police — or so the gang thought.

Unknown to them, detectives received intelligence — they have refused to disclose what that was — which brought the thieves to their attention.

The men were quickly placed under surveillance and officers watched the men as they continued to plot more thefts, building up a dossier of evidence that would bring the gang to justice.

On November 12 last year, officers from Bolton’s proactive vehicle crime unit carried out dawn swoops on the homes of Trevor Jones, David Jones and Perritt, bringing their criminal actions to an end in dramatic style.