A stolen car handler from Croydon who was caught when he reported the theft of his own vehicle was jailed for eight years last Friday (October 12).

Chirag Patel, 39, was responsible for handling 19 stolen vehicles worth over £700,000.

His crimes were only brought to the police's attention when he reported his own Porsche as stolen in February 2015.

After reporting the theft, Mr Patel resisted giving his home address, only providing details of his parents’ property.

When they eventually attended Mr Patel's address as part of their initial investigation, officers discovered a number of high value vehicles in the basement car park.

They noticed that one car had a personalised number plate identical to one seen earlier on a vehicle outside Mr Patel's parents' address.

Further inquiries established that the five vehicles in the car park had false number plates, and they were later all confirmed to have been stolen.

Acting Detective Sergeant Billy Clough, who led the investigation, said: “Patel played the leading role in a sophisticated operation to handle high-value, stolen vehicles, motivated only by sheer greed.

“He even attempted to convince the jury that he was a legitimate businessman, who had simply been unlucky in obtaining such a vast quantity of stolen items, but the jury saw through this and convicted him of being the key player in a significant criminal enterprise.”

During a search of his property, officers recovered 26 sets of car keys, lists of vehicles and registrations, machines for accessing on-board computers in vehicles, programming keys and a number of mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

Patel was arrested at his home on February 19, 2015.

Speaking about the officer who identified the first stolen vehicle, PC Andy Garland, Judge HHJ Gower said: “It was his sharp eyes and investigative nose and approach which first spotted a stolen vehicle and set this investigation in motion and he receives my formal commendation.”

Following a detailed investigation, a total of 19 stolen vehicles with an estimated value of £728,000 were linked to Patel and subsequently seized, as well as nine sets of keys which had been stolen from Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Solihull, West Midlands.

It was later discovered that Patel had been using the vehicles in the running of an ‘off-the-books’ vehicle rental business where vehicles were rented out to his associates and contacts.

The vehicles had been stolen by unknown individuals during burglaries and keyless thefts across London between October 2012 and January 2015.

They were stored at addresses owned by Patel and his family, or with associates who looked after the vehicles.

The identities of the cars were concealed using legitimate insurance details of vehicles which had been written off.

Following a five-week trial, Mr Patel was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court for conspiracy to handle stolen goods in relation to stolen vehicles and keys discovered at his property, for which he received eight years’ imprisonment.

He was also found guilty of possession of criminal property in relation to over £440,000 of unexplained cash deposits which had been identified from two personal bank accounts in his name, for which he received three years’ imprisonment.

The sentences will run concurrently.