Toulouse: heavy prison sentences for the gang of luxury car thieves
Their preferred target: large German cars. During 2020, four theft pros had carried out a real flight at BMW, Audi and Mercedes dealerships. They have just been sentenced to terms ranging from two to five years.
These four are car theft pros. They were all behind bars awaiting trial. Friday, March 25, they appeared before the criminal court for a fault of facts.
Between August 22 and October 13, 2020, the fine team had a very sustained activity. The playing field stretched from Haute-Garonne, Gers, Aude, Tarn, Lot-et-Garonne to Var.
They broke into automobile garages and dealerships. They stole the ignition keys, computers and diagnostic cases (allowing electronic cards to open any vehicle). They then fled in stolen vehicles. In general, large cars of German brands (BMW, Mercedes, Audi).
The meticulous work of the Villefranche-de-Lauragais research brigade had made it possible to link all these thefts and identify the perpetrators. The military relied first on several genetic profiles taken in particular from stolen vehicles. The personal car of one of the gang members was quickly spotted. He had also had the good idea of leaving many stolen vehicles parked in the immediate vicinity of his company’s home in the Pradettes district of Toulouse… Which made the work of the investigators a lot easier. This defendant may not have been talking in police custody.
“My client is a man with a tender heart”
For “a few tickets”, he would simply have served as a “driver” for his acolytes. “As an amateur” according to his lawyer Me Nicolas Raynaud De Lage. “For my client, these operations were not very lucrative. He was completely on the margins of those who thought and planned the flights. He has no technical skills to start these vehicles designed with state-of-the-art safety systems. »
On the other hand, this defendant seems to have a real appetite for animals. He had taken care of Hollywood, a bull terrier, supposed to stand guard at one of the “visited” compounds.
“My client is a gentle-hearted man. The dog had a sore leg. He fell in love with the animal and took it with him. He fed him and even took him to the vet! “, says Me Raynaud De Lage. Since the dog was returned by the gendarmes to his master.
This episode did not seem to wait for Mathias Marchand, the public prosecutor, who demanded a five-year prison sentence against the “driver”.
For the other protagonists of the thefts, the sentences requested ranged from 5 years to two years in prison for the youngest of the defendants aged 20. “He is a child who would not have ended up in court but prison made him mature. He was cooperative during the trial, ”said his lawyer Me Anne Prouteau.
The criminal court sentenced “the driver” to 4 years in prison, as did the “brain” of the gang and his lieutenant. Me Prouteau’s client was sentenced to two years in prison.