Car and key burglars jailed

Burglars Declan Fitzgerald, Joseph Kyte and Joshua Irving have been sent to prison for a total of five years.

Fitzgerald, 21 of Dorwood Avenue, Manchester, was sentenced to two years; Kyte, 33 of Charlestown Road, Manchester, was jailed for two years and Irving, 21, of HMP Altcourse, was sentenced to 12 months.

All three men had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and two counts of theft of a motor vehicle.

The court heard how on the morning of Wednesday 14 August 2024, police received two separate reports from residents on Racecourse Road and Alveston Drive who reported that their cars had been stolen overnight.

Both callers reported that they had awoken to find that unknown offenders had forced entry into their homes and then stolen cars which were parked outside the addresses, a Mini Countryman Cooper and a BMW 14.

An investigation was launched and during ANPR analysis officers noted how both of the stolen cars had travelled out of Wilmslow towards Manchester in convoy with a third vehicle – a BMW 320i.

Details of the convoy car were shared with other forces and on the evening of Wednesday 14t August, the car was spotted by officers from Greater Manchester Police on the A580 near Swinton.

Police stopped the car and arrested the four occupants, which included Fitzgerald, Kyte and Irving.

All of the men were transported to custody and questioned, while searches were also conducted at their homes in Manchester.

During the searches officers recovered a vehicle grabbing key from Irving’s home, which are often used by burglars.

Meanwhile, while analysing their mobile phones officers discovered a number of messages which linked the men to the theft of cars, these included one message where Fitzgerald told his girlfriend he was out ‘robbing cars’.

Officers also established that the BMW the group were travelling in was a hire car, and through telematics data they were able to locate the stolen Mini in the Warren Drive area of Hale.

The data also showed that on the morning of the burglaries the hire car had travelled from Kyte’s home to Irving’s address before travelling to Wilmslow. Following the incidents the car then returned to the suspects’ homes in Manchester.