Three jailed for £600,000 burglary spree

CCTV image of one of the burglaries in progress

Three men who stole items worth over £600,000 have been jailed for a total of 24 years.

Vincent Ball, John Barlow and Thomas Mee – all members of a sophisticated organised crime gang from Liverpool – committed at least 14 burglaries between November 2018 and October 2019.

The group specifically targeted homes in affluent rural locations where they stole high value watches, designer handbags and jewellery.

Ball acted as the getaway driver, while Barlow and Mee carried out the burglaries.

The group used ladders to enter properties through first floor windows and doors to avoid setting off house alarms.

Burglaries in Cheshire were carried out in Goostrey, Neston, Allostock, Mere, Chelford, and Lymm.

Evidence linked the men to burglaries in Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire.

Their downfall came when police received a 999 call from a Prestbury resident reporting that a family member had disturbed a number of intruders at their Macclesfield Road home.

Ball and Mee were arrested a short time later in their getaway car in Alderley Edge.  

Police officers found crowbars, walkie-talkies, torches, mobile phones, disposable gloves, false number plates, along with various items of clothing containing traces of Barlow and Mee’s DNA.

Barlow evaded the police, disposing of some of his clothing, before travelling back to Liverpool where he was arrested.

During searches of the trio’s homes in Merseyside, police discovered stolen items, a large quantity of cash and mobile phones.

One of the phones, belonging to Mee, contained images of items stolen from several of the burglaries.

On Friday 31 July, at Chester Crown Court, Ball, 52, Barlow, 58, and Mee, 42, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle.

Mee also admitted three counts of handling stolen goods.

Ball, of Ranworth Place, Liverpool, was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months, Barlow, of no fixed address, was jailed for 7 years and 6 months and Mee, of HMP Altcourse, was handed an 8 year and 7 month custodial sentence.

If you have any information criminal behavior in Cheshire you can call Cheshire Constabulary on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.