A COALPIT Heath man who ran a garage where stolen cars were taken apart has been jailed.
Benjamin Hobbs (above), of Beesmoor Road, was convicted for his role in a conspiracy to steal Land Rover Defender vehicles worth more than £600,000 and strip them down in a workshop he owned.
He and fellow gang members were jailed for a combined total of almost 16 years in September, after a “complex” police investigation to track them down.
A court heard heard that four men were involved in the plot targeting Land Rover Defenders, which saw 33 of the expensive 4x4s stolen from across a wide area of England and Wales.
The gang also stole a VW Golf that was used to drive them out on missions to steal the Land Rovers over an eight-month period between September 2024 and May last year.
West Mercia Police, which led the investigation into the gang, said thefts were reported to six different police forces, from Sussex to Dyfed Powys and Devon & Cornwall, and included Avon & Somerset.
Hobbs, aged 35, owned a workshop in Bristol that was used as a ‘chop shop’, where stolen Land Rovers were taken by the other gang members to be stripped down and sold for parts.
One of the stolen vehicles was found there by police, along with parts from others, documents and a jacket taken from one of them.
Some of the parts were identified by the owners or confirmed by using keys in the vehicles’ bulkheads – part of the chassis.
Data from automatic number plate recognition cameras and phone forensics linked Hobbs and his business to the other conspirators and the stolen vehicles.
Conspiracy
Hobbs and two other defendants – Leonard Hodgkins, aged 50, of Malvern, Jimmy Butler, 41, of Hindlip, both in Worcestershire – were charged with conspiracy to commit theft of vehicles but changed their pleas while on trial at Hereford Crown Court in September.
Hobbs was jailed for four years and four months, Hodgkins for four years and nine months, and Butler for three years and eight months.
A fourth man – David Hodgkins, aged 40, Powick, Worcestershire, pleaded guilty to the same charge last December and was jailed for three years.
West Mercia Police launched an investigation after Butler was arrested in November 2025. Police searched his caravan and found distinctive clothes that had been spotted on CCTV of the suspects committing the thefts.
The other men were arrested soon afterwards and evidence from their mobile phones showed they had used them while travelling in convoy with the stolen vehicles.
Lead investigator Detective Sergeant Mark Jones, of Hereford Reactive CID, 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, as their criminality harmed many people in our force area and neighbouring forces, too.
“We know it often seems like car thieves get away with it, but we hope this result shows we will always work hard to bring these offenders before the courts and try to halt the impact their actions have on our communities.”