SWANSEA: Gang who stole £328,000 of cars to order sentenced as some vehicles surface in Cyprus

A Swansea gang that stole high-value cars to order across Wales and England, worth an estimated £328,000, has been sentenced after an investigation that also uncovered commercial-scale drug dealing.

Swansea Crown Court heard the operation was orchestrated by Sean McCabe, 33, of Pen y Graig Road, Townhill, who recruited others, sourced a number plate making machine from a criminal contact in Barnsley and bought electronic equipment for bypassing keyless entry systems.

Stolen vehicles were given cloned plates and altered identification numbers, and were often resprayed or rebadged, in one case turning a Seat Ateca stolen from the West Midlands into a Cupra Ateca, before fraudulent applications were made to the DVLA for new registration documents.

Most of the cars have never been traced. Some are known to have left the country, with a Jaguar F-Pace and a Mercedes GLA believed to have ended up in Cyprus.

The network began to unravel on 15 July last year, when tracking firm TrackerUK alerted South Wales Police that one of its units was transmitting from a field at Felindre, north of Swansea.

Officers found eight stolen vehicles and a trailer. Two men made off on foot and on a quad bike, and packaging bearing McCabe’s name and address was found in one of the vehicles.

McCabe was arrested that day. He refused to give police the PIN to his phone, but officers got into it anyway, and the download laid out the scale of the operation and his network of contacts around Wales and England.

Messages showed him discussing thefts with Daniel Bryant, 36, of Matthew Street, Swansea, including a car Bryant had spotted in Skewen, and reassuring him the gang’s devices would work on a Nissan Juke he wanted to take.

Jake Thomas, 29, of Woodford Road, Blaenymaes, offered to sell stolen cars to McCabe, who replied that he could take “a few a night” and asked him to keep his eyes peeled for Range Rovers and Jaguars.

Michael Brain, 41, of Cil y Coed, Waunarlwydd, made repeated cross-border trips in May and June 2025 to collect the plate machine and entry-bypass equipment on McCabe’s behalf.

Mumen Khan, 24, of Heol y Nant, Bridgend, was a delivery driver for a BMW dealership at the time, and the court heard he exploited a job that took him around the UK, on one occasion texting co-defendant Joshua Pope the address where he had just dropped off a BMW M340i for a customer, adding: “The one we taking, mush.”

Khan also used a stolen Toyota Hilux and trailer to collect stolen Land Rover Discoveries and a Range Rover Sport from Birmingham, calling himself “Sean’s boy with the trailer” to contacts in the West Midlands, and told McCabe a gun had been pulled on him during one trip.

Pope, 33, of Bryn Parc, Morriston, was saved in Khan’s phone as “Log book Josh” and was involved with what prosecutors said was a great number of stolen cars.

McCabe’s phone also revealed what the court heard was commercial-scale supply of cocaine and cannabis, with messages discussing kilo quantities and plans to deliver drugs by drone into HMP Parc and HMP Swansea. Steffan Hopkins, 27, of Park Avenue, Plasmarl, who went by the nickname “Cheddar”, worked in the cannabis operation.

McCabe’s partner Lindsey Martin, 31, of the same Townhill address, registered four of the vehicles, including the Jaguar F-Pace later exported to Cyprus. She admitted conspiracy to defraud on the basis that she knew the cars had been obtained illegally but did not know the details or of any other vehicles.

McCabe admitted conspiring to steal motor vehicles, conspiracy to defraud and conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis, and was jailed for 11 years and six months. Brain, who admitted the vehicle and fraud conspiracies, conspiring to supply cocaine and possessing cocaine, heroin and ketamine with intent to supply, received five years and six months.

Pope admitted the vehicle theft and fraud conspiracies and was jailed for five years. Bryant, who admitted the theft conspiracy and being concerned in supplying cocaine and cannabis, received four years and five months. Thomas admitted the theft conspiracy and being concerned in supplying heroin, ketamine, cocaine and cannabis, and was jailed for four years and three months.

Hopkins admitted conspiring to supply cannabis and possessing the drug, and was jailed for 14 months. Martin received a 12-month sentence suspended for 12 months, and Khan, who admitted the vehicle theft conspiracy, received 22 months suspended for two years.

The sentences follow Operation Eagle, and during an enforcement week last year officers seized £2,799 in cash, gold and platinum valued at about £5,100, 360 grams of heroin, around 250 grams of suspected ketamine and quantities of cocaine, cannabis and tablets.

Det Insp Richard George said the thefts had “a marked impact” on the vehicles’ owners, in the cost of replacement vehicles and insurance premiums as well as the immediate loss, and credited teamwork between officers in Swansea and further afield with specialist organised crime, forensic and digital units.

Ch Supt Stephen Jones said the investigating team had worked “extremely hard, long hours”, recovering drugs and outstanding stolen property. “The arrests and sentences represent a huge dent in the pockets of criminals,” he said. “Ultimately, this investigation has protected the public and safeguarded our community.”