a pair of car thieves who stole £110,000 worth of range rovers in a sophisticated scam targeting sellers on autotrader  have been jailed nathan bates, 27, and liaquat ali, 29, were part of a cunning gang who would turn up at addresses of people advertising their vehicles on the classified motoring website and secretly clone their car keys, a court heard they would then return later on to steal the luxury cars the duo and accomplice michael griffiths, 31, targeted their first victim on november 3, 2013 when a range rover sport worth £36,500 was stolen from an address in redditch, worcestershire nathan bates (left) and liaquat ali (right) were part of a criminal gang who stole £110,000 of range rovers  then on november 24, another range rover sport, worth £45,000, was driven off in leicester it has never been recovered just four days later, the gang stole a range rover evoque, worth £30,000, from surrey but the crooks ended up dumping the car in a layby on the m40 near wheatley, oxfordshire   when griffiths disappeared griffiths' body was later discovered in the river thame on december 24 after a police appeal for his whereabouts despite their missing friend, ali and bates targeted another address in wolverhampton, west midlands, on december 1 and tried to steal another evoque but they were foiled when the owner realised the pair had tampered with the diagnostics of the car, which was worth £28,500, and that his key fob no longer worked the pair were arrested that month and linked to the thefts and attempted theft of the four vehicles   worth a total of £140,000 the pair who would turn up at addresses of sellers on autotrader and secretly clone their car keys before returning to steal the vehicles  and yesterday bates and ali were jailed at birmingham crown court and received lengthy driving bans ali, from hall green, birmingham, was jailed for three and a half years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal, theft of a motor vehicle and failing to surrender to custody he was banned from driving for four years bates, from shard end, birmingham, was jailed for 15 months after admitting conspiracy to steal and was banned from the road for 18 months sentencing them, judge patrick thomas qc said: 'this was significant professional crime it involved calculated and technically astute pre planning and professionally carried out thefts or attempted thefts of high value motor vehicles 'they were offences of pure and unadulterated greed ali you were centrally involved in this i accept there were other people but you were the man on the ground, organising and carrying out this sophisticated and carefully planned theft' the duo  stole £110,000 worth of range rovers, including a range rover sport (file picture, right) worth £36,500 from redditch, and a range rover evoque (file picture, left) worth £30,000, from surrey    when griffiths disappeared  joseph keating, defending for bates, said: 'the loss of mr griffiths is something that he has really been affected by 'he understands that had it not been for his involvement in this enterprise it is very likely mr griffiths would still be here with us today that is a burden he has on his shoulders' ali pleaded guilty to all four thefts, but bates admitted the redditch, leicester and surrey offences ali and bates used classified website autotrader to track down their potential victims the men would pose as interested buyers and tell the householder they needed to check the car for faults they then inserted an electronic device into the vehicle’s on board diagnostic slot to supposedly check the vehicle's history or mileage in fact, it was a tool   used by locksmiths to re programme car keys the thieves would then clone the keys and return later while the owner was asleep or at work and steal the car police had issued an appeal for the 'missing man' in december 2013 and, after appealing for sightings in the oxford area, griffiths' body was pulled out of the river after the sentencing, detective constable rob clarke from west midlands police said: 'ali never wanted to be caught with the stolen vehicles and would pay bates to take the risk of driving them away once they had been stolen from the victim's home address 'ali thought that he was above the law but a combination of information from the public and thorough checks by our intelligence analysts led to his downfall 'unfortunately, this is not a new method used by criminals and there were around 1,234 'keyless' car thefts between april and december last year 'we are working hard to reduce these thefts by regularly stopping high value cars to check they are not stolen and advising legitimate owners of the steps they can take to protect their vehicle 'however, i would like to take this opportunity to remind car sellers that if anyone comes to see your vehicle and asks to plug something into it then don't let them there is no need for them to do this and any checks they want to do should be carried out at a garage'
nathan bates liaquat ali range rovers autotrader 110,000 michael griffiths' river thame ali bates
nathan bates and liaquat ali were part of a gang targeting range rovers . duo visited sellers that advertised on autotrader and clone their car keys . they then returned to steal the luxury vehicles in a scam worth £110,000 . body of fellow gang member michael griffiths' was found in river thame . ali was jailed for three and half years while bates was jailed for 15 months 