Gang who stole 33 Land Rovers worth £600,000 during eight-month crime spree are jailed

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 08:36 EDT, 21 September 2026 | Updated: 08:39 EDT, 21 September 2026 A gang who stole 33 Land Rovers worth £600,000 during an eight-month crime spree have been jailed for a combined total of more than 15 years. The four men - aged between 35 and 50 - targeted the iconic British 4x4s across six separate police force areas between September 2024 and May 2025. Leonard Hodgkins, Jimmy Butler, Benjamin Hobbs and David Hodgkins often stole the high-end vehicles in car parks and businesses.CCTV from one raid showed them using an angle grinder to smash through a lock before stealing a defender stopped in a customer car park. The gang were however eventually brought to justice after West Mercia Police raided a caravan owned by 41-year-old Butler, from Hindlip. When detectives went inside, they found clothing which a suspect had been seen wearing in CCTV footage. This discovery eventually led to the rest of the thieves being arrested on November 11 last year in a moment captured by police bodycam footage. One clip shows Leonard Hodgkins, 50, from Malvern, trying to evade officers in a cemetery after he was recognised by a white T-shirt he was wearing. A gang who stole 33 Land Rover Defenders worth approximately £600,000 have been jailed CCTV footage captured the gang stealing the vehicles from car parks and businesses Bodycam footage showed 40-year-old David Hodgkins being arrested in bed during a raid on his homeLeonard Hodgkins, Jimmy Butler, David Hodgkins and Benjamin Hobbs (L-R) were jailed for a combined total of 15 yearsDavid Hodgkins, 40, from Powick, was meanwhile cuffed in bed during a raid on his property. Mobile phones seized from the gang revealed they used them while travelling in convoy with the stolen vehicles.Hobbs, 35, owned a workshop in Bristol which police said was being used as a 'chop shop' - a workshop dealing in stolen car parts. The stolen Land Rovers were taken there by the other conspirators.Officers discovered parts from the stolen cars, documents and a jacket from one of the vehicles inside the chop shop.Some were identified by their owners or confirmed by using keys in the 'bulkheads' of the vehicles.ANPR and phone forensics also linked Holmes and Hobbs and their business to the other conspirators and the stolen vehicles. Leonard Hodgkins was jailed for four years and nine months, Jimmy Butler for three years and eight months, Benjamin Hobbs for four years and four months and David Hodgkins for three years after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing. Detective Sergeant Mark Jones, of West Mercia Police, said: 'This was a complex but ultimately successful investigation that tracked down and prosecuted this gang of car thieves, so we are pleased to get these sentences today as their criminality harmed many people in our force area and neighbouring forces too.'