A GANG who stole high value Land Rover Defender vehicles has been sentenced to a total of 15 years and nine months in prison.

Four men were each convicted of conspiracy to commit theft of vehicles between September 2024 and May 2025, relating to the thefts of 34 vehicles including the Landrovers that were worth more than £600,000 from the West Mercia, Gloucestershire, Dyfed Powys, Sussex, Avon & Somerset and Devon & Cornwall force areas.

Towns targeted included Newent, Hereford Crown Court was told.

Leonard Hodgkins, 50, of Marlborough Gardens, Malvern was given four years and nine months.Jimmy Butler, 41, of Pershore Lane, Hindlip, Worcestershire three years and eight months, Benjamin Hobbs, 35, of Beesmoor Road, Bristol, four years and four months and David Hodgkins, 40 of The Furlong, Powick, Worcestershire, three years.

West Mercia Police launched Operation Liondale following the arrest of Butler in November 2025.

During his arrest, distinctive items of clothing seen in CCTV of the suspects committing the offences were found in Butler’s caravan.

His co-conspirators were arrested on November 11 2025 and mobile phones seized from them corroborated they used them when they travelled in convoy with the stolen vehicles and the mission vehicles, which included a blue Toyota Yaris and, later, a red VW Golf.

Hobbs owned a workshop in Bristol that was used as a ‘chop shop’ - an illegal enterprise that deals in stolen car parts - where the stolen Land Rovers were taken by the other conspirators.

Parts from the stolen cars, documents and a jacket from one of the vehicles were found by officers in the chop shop – some of which were identified by the owners or confirmed by using the keys in the "bulkheads" of the vehicles.

Automatic numberplate recognition and phone forensics linked Holmes and Hobbs and their business to the other conspirators and the stolen vehicles.