Gang member jailed over high-value car theft campaign

Nation.Cymru staff

A member of an organised crime gang which targeted high-value cars in a £320,000 theft campaign has been jailed.

Dziugas Klinavicius was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison on Thursday for his part in a series of thefts across north Wales and Cheshire.

Between January and March 2025, the Lithuanian organised crime group targeted Mercedes and BMW vehicles using sophisticated equipment to carry out keyless relay attacks.

Eight vehicles were stolen and attempts were made to take a further five, with the cars involved valued at a total of around £320,000.

The gang targeted vehicles in Llandudno, Llandudno Junction, Penrhyn Bay, Abergele, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Northwich and Crewe.

North Wales Police said the thieves used equipment to intercept signals emitted by owners’ car keys inside their homes before using GPS signal jammers in an attempt to prevent vehicle trackers transmitting their locations.

They would also cover CCTV and doorbell cameras with duct tape and use cloned number plates matching the make and model of the vehicles they targeted.

DNA recovered from duct tape left on one victim’s CCTV camera, along with telecommunications evidence and messages from encrypted chat services, helped police identify Klinavicius and Tomas Politovas.

The investigation took a significant turn after a Mercedes was stolen from an address in Llandudno on March 7, 2025.

Police established that it had travelled to Norfolk using cloned number plates.

Officers from Norfolk Constabulary raided an industrial unit in the King’s Lynn area later that day and recovered the Mercedes partially stripped, with parts placed on pallets and wrapped ready to be exported.

Three Lithuanian men – Rytis Ardavicius, Arnas Jankauskas and Stasys Venckus – were arrested at the unit and later charged with conspiring to receive stolen goods.

Ardavicius was sentenced to 46 weeks in prison, while Jankauskas and Venckus each received 27-month sentences. All three were subsequently deported.

Fifteen days after the raid, officers patrolling a new-build estate disturbed thieves attempting to steal a BMW from a driveway in Prestatyn.

Police gave chase and captured Politovas, who was found with signal-jamming equipment, duct tape, cloned number plates, tools and a mobile phone.

The phone contained an encrypted messaging app which police said had been used by the gang to communicate and research and plan vehicle thefts across the UK.

Politovas admitted conspiring to commit vehicle thefts across north Wales and Cheshire and was jailed for four years. He has since been deported.

Police then launched a nationwide search for Klinavicius.

He was eventually arrested by Greater Manchester Police on July 29 this year after attempting to flee a theft in the back of a taxi in the Oldham area.

Klinavicius was transferred to custody in north Wales and charged with conspiracy to commit vehicle thefts and using apparatus to interfere with wireless telegraphy.

He pleaded guilty at Mold Crown Court on August 28 and was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison on Thursday.

The judge referred the question of his deportation to the Home Office.

Complex

Detective Constable Ash Davies said: “This was a lengthy and complex investigation, in which it was established that Klinavicius played an integral role in the gang’s criminality.

“The sentence imposed upon Klinavicius today reflects the seriousness of his offending.

“Car theft is not a victimless crime. Acquisitive offending remains a force priority because we know of the devastating effect it can have on victims.

“As in this case, we’ll continue to dismantle the organised criminal groups behind car thefts by identifying the people, patterns of offending and the places involved in these crimes and work with colleagues in other forces, showing that we will stop at nothing to tackle this issue.”

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