Bosses of million pound car crime empire brought to justice

Four men at the centre of a criminal empire which bought, dismantled and exported stolen cars have been sentenced at Brighton Magistrates Court.

An investigation by Surrey Police alongside Metropolitan Police and Hampshire Constabulary found this was an organised criminal operation on a huge scale.

Thieves delivered cars stolen from Kent, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and London. The four organisers worked out of two sites as their ‘chop shops’, where they would dismantle the cars, including a Ferrari that officers found cut in half. A swift relocation to a second site in Crawley took place last autumn once police had discovered the first site in Horley, but officers quickly tracked the enterprise down at its new HQ.

46 year old Michael Kozub of Tooting Bec Road, Wandsworth and 31 year old Filip Zablocki of Sadler Close, Mitcham were the central figures. Described as the ‘go-to’ contacts for car thieves across the South East, they organised stolen cars to be delivered to their chop shop and kept in touch with an extensive network of convicted car thieves.

Both pleaded guilty earlier in the year. Kozub was sentenced to six years and three months for conspiracy to receive stolen goods, and the court imposed a serious crime prevention order on him. Zablocki was jailed for two years and eight months, for the same offence as well as possession of cocaine.

46 year old Dominik Mrzyglod of Fernbank Avenue, Walton-on-Thames owned a transportation business and was responsible for getting the stolen cars - whether whole or in parts - out of the UK. Mrzyglod also pleaded guilty as his trial loomed and was sentenced to three years and one month in jail.

49 year okd Mariusz Parafiniuk of Kangley Bridge Road, Lewisham, was the gang’s mechanic. He was found guilty of conspiracy to receive stolen goods. He received a 15-month sentence suspended for two years and will pay £2000 in costs.

Detective Inspector Dan Voller of Surrey Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit praised colleagues from Hampshire Constabulary and the Metropolitan Police:

“Today’s sentences are a result of excellent teamwork. This included hours of meticulous searching through mobile phone evidence to prove there was a case to answer for conspiracy. We traced a web of messages involving numerous people, across multiple phones and social media channels as deals were done for stolen high-value vehicles.

“Alongside that was detailed analysis of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) technology as we tracked the cars on their journeys, and of the gang’s bank accounts.

“Kozub claimed the storage unit was simply where he innocently kept his jet ski, but this was proven to be a lie. We recovered cars to the value of over half a million pounds and believe that the total value of the cars that passed through this gang’s operation is close to a million pounds.”