Mechanic in stolen car racket is jailed (From This is Hampshire)

Mechanic in stolen car racket is jailed

5:30pm Saturday 9th February 2013 in News By Chris Gregory

A MECHANIC hid stolen cars in a Basingstoke lock-up where he dismantled them before selling parts on an internet auction site.

Damion Titchner, of Sinclair Drive, Churchill Way, Basingstoke, was in the dock for sentence at Winchester Crown Court having admitted three counts of handling stolen goods at an earlier hearing.

The offences came to light on October 14 last year, when police officers searching for a BMW M5 that had been stolen in Blackwater found it in a lock-up off Worting Road, Worting, which belonged to Titchner.

Louisa Howard, prosecuting, said the car had been stolen two days before but the owner Michael Walker activated a tracking device which gave its location to the police.

She said: “A warrant was executed for the lock-up and inside were found other parts of vehicles.

“The BMW was not in the same state when it was taken two days earlier. Panels had been removed, the passenger door was broken and the wiring had been interfered with.”

The lock-up also contained doors from a Vauxhall van that had been stolen from outside a house in Tilehurst, Berkshire, on December 29, 2011. The doors contained the owner’s business cards.

There was also an engine from a Peugeot van stolen from Reading in February last year.

The court heard that in an interview after his arrest, Titchner, 38, said he accepted an offer from a man to take stolen cars and dismantle them so parts could be sold on ebay.

Charles Cochand, defending, said Titchner was in debt at the time, but did not take part in stealing the vehicles.

Judge Nigel Lickley said: “These offences were clearly organised to some extent and they were done, you accept, for financial gain.”

He sentenced him to six months imprisonment for each offence, to run concurrently.