Six luxury cars have been seized by police after a raid at a site in south Essex which has seen almost £1million worth of stolen vehicles go through it.
Specialist officers alongside the stolen vehicle intelligence unit raided the industrial units at North Benfleet on Monday where they found high-value cars stolen from across Essex and the London area.
Officers found a Rolls Royce Cullinan worth £250,000, an Aston Martin DB11 valued at £70,000 and a Mercedes AMG GT valued at £40,000 at the scene, alongside a Range Rover Vogue.
The stolen Toyota Alphard and Jeep Wrangler (Image: Essex Police)
A Jeep Wrangler – typically worth around £60,000 – and a Toyota Alphard were located in two storage containers.
All six cars were intact.
Further evidence gathered at the scene to support the investigation shows more stolen cars have been through the site, with an estimated total value of just under a million pounds.
Chief Inspector Dan McHugh said: “This was a great piece of work by all those involved.
“In just 12 hours from information being pieced together to obtaining a warrant, teams from across the force worked together to recover six high value cars.
“Our initial enquires estimate almost £1million worth of cars may have gone through this site and the Rolls Royce was recovered just 24 hours after it was stolen.
“Our work doesn’t end now we’ve found the cars: we’ll continue to investigate to identify and arrest those responsible for the thefts and reunite the vehicles with their owners.”
The stolen Rolls Royce Cullinan (Image: Essex Police)
The specialist stolen vehicle unit has gone from strength-to-strength, recovering more than 700 stolen cars last year worth £27million – including a Ferrari owned by a Premier League footballer.
“Our SVIU play an important role in leading the force’s response to tackle this type of crime. They regularly seize stolen cars within hours of them being taken, examine them and use that intelligence to locate other missing vehicles,” Chief Insp McHugh added.
“Their intelligence-led approach shows their determination to tackle vehicle theft as a force priority in which we’ll do all we can to disrupt offenders’ activities by using and sharing intelligence with colleagues, partners and other forces and targeting the use of road networks in an effort to make Essex a hostile place to commit vehicle crime.
“We are dedicating time and resources to target criminals committing any form of vehicle crime and we’d ask the public to support us and get in contact with us if they have information that could help us locate a stolen vehicle or identify those concerned in vehicle crime.”
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