‘Ringleader’ of sophisticated car theft scam from Clayhall jailed

A 35-year-old has been sentenced to five years in prison after masterminding a car theft scam worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Imran Khan Ganchi, of Mellows Road, Clayhall, pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to steal motor vehicles.

His accomplice Ashley Stanfield of Jack Walker Court, Finsbury Park was sentenced to three years in prison on the same charge. The pair stole seven cars, usually high end Mercedes, and made three further attempts on other vehicles.

Police said they would cruise round looking for new valuable vehicles on driveways taking down the address and registration number.

They would then go to a dealership with forged paperwork asking for a spare key and return to the chosen car in the middle of the night to steal it.

Det Insp Paul Fuller, who headed the three month investigation, said: “We intercepted that Stanfield was going into a BMW dealership and, working closely with them, we filmed him covertly getting what he thought was a key to one of the cars but it was in fact a blank key. We then arrested him at his home address.”

Further raids on an address in Leicester linked to Ganchi found sophisticated vehicle tracker blocking gadgets as well as a forged driving licence.

Mr Fuller said: “Ganchi had equipment to find trackers and a blocking devise so he had the technology which was key evidence against him.”

They were arrested in June and both appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Mr Fuller said: “The police are relentlessly targeting organised criminals to make London a safer place. It’s a really stiff sentence for them. Ganchi was the ringleader and organiser and that has been reflected in the sentence.”