Gang who burgled Charlbury homes and raided Burford antiques shop jailed for almost 40 years

A sixth gang member, who stored stolen cash and jewellery for them and was in the area of a number of the burglaries when were committed, was jailed for thirteen months but will be released immediately having already served his time while in remand in custody.

At Bristol Crown Court, Judge Michael Cullum commended two police officers and a civilian colleague for their work investigating the case which, he said, would have produced 'dozens of ringbinders' full of paperwork in a pre-digital age.

Cross border raids

The gang, all from Cheltenham, carried out burglaries of homes, shops and other business premises across Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire during a seven month period from August 2019 to Feb 2020. Expensive fast cars parked on the driveways were often their target.

Towns and villages hit by the gang included Bicester, Burford, Hungerford, Swindon, Witney, Chippenham, Tewkesbury, Bourton on the Water and Tetbury.

The defendants were: David Benyon, 32 of Dinas Road, Cheltenham; Josh Brammer, 26, Clarke Way, Cheltenham; Sonny Curran, 32, Clevedon Square, Cheltenham; Jason Hawkins, 28, of Shurdington Road, Cheltenham; Ryan McCormick, 35, of Clyde Crescent, Cheltenham; and Max Smith, 28, of Ruby Avenue, Bishops Cleeve.

All but Hawkins admitted two charges of conspiracy to burgle between August 2019 and February 2020, one charge of conspiracy to steal and an additional burglary charge.

All defendants, including Hawkins, also pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property.

Curran, Smith and McCormick and Benyon further admitted an additional burglary charge.

The raiders in Butwell and Jones Jewellers, Tewkesbury, and the damage to the shop Pictures: GLOUCESTERSHIRE CONSTABULARY/GLOS NEWS SERVICE

The court was told that Hawkins had a lesser role in the conspiracy because he played no physical part in the burglaries - but he was always in the same area when a crime was being committed by other members of the gang. A large amount of stolen jewellery and cash was found at his home address.

Prosecutor Robin Shellard said: "The gang of men worked together at different times and were involved in at least 42 burglaries in Gloucestershire and the Thames Valley police area between August 2019 and February 2020.

“The investigation revealed that the gang were involved in the theft of high powered cars following a burglary of the targeted homes and the subsequent theft of the keys from the property.

“Additionally, on one occasion, an innocent man was assaulted after trying to intervene during one commercial burglary.

“Other items stolen during the burglaries included jewellery and high value watches, which were later sold on from the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham.

“A large amount of mobile telephone investigation was involved along with the use of automatic number plate recognition cameras to establish the whereabouts of the defendants at any particular time and the location of stolen vehicles.

“The estimated cost of the offending is £616, 650. This is made up of the loss of items £508,000 and the damage caused to property amounted to £107,000.

“These figures do not include the business interruption costs. One of the burglaries was of a Post Office which suffered a loss of income of some £50,000 due to the damage done to the property.

“For some of the victims of the commercial burglaries the loss was too much to bear and they went out of business.

“The total value of the stolen vehicles was around £238,471 with most of the high-end cars being recovered - although in many instances they were damaged.”

Crowbars recovered by the police Picture: GLOUCESTERSHIRE CONSTABULARY/GLOS NEWS SERVICE

Oxfordshire break-ins

Nine burglaries were reported in the Oxfordshire area between November 3 and 7. These burglaries are linked to the gang through mobile phone cell location evidence.

• The burglaries included a property at Church Lane, Weston On The Green, Bicester, in which items of jewellery were stolen and a property nearby was broken into and jewellery of several hundreds of pounds were stolen.

• A property in Charlbury, Chipping Norton was also targeted. The elderly owners returned on November 5 to find that their sentimental jewellery had been stolen. The gang went on to target a property in Lees Heights, in the same village, where gang members gained entry and stole £400 in cash.

• In the village of Stonesfield, five miles north of Witney, the gang smashed their way in and stole £1,300 worth of jewellery

• In the same village another house was burgled and the gang stole the keys to a Nissan Navara and drove away in the £20,000 vehicle.

• On December 10, 2019 four or five members of the gang targeted an antique shop in George Street, Burford at around 10.30pm. Witnesses saw two men balaclavas shouting at members of the public and carrying silverware back to their vehicle before driving off. The shop was a collection of independent traders who rented stalls in the shop. One trader lost £4,000 in the raid.

One of the stolen cars taken by the burglary gang Picture: GLOUCESTERSHIRE CONSTABULARY/GLOS NEWS SERVICE

Jail sentences

The men were variously said to be remorseful and were family men.

Beynon was sentenced to eight years and four months; Curran received a prison term of seven years and six months; Brammer and Smith were jailed for seven years while McCormick received a custodial sentence of seven years and four months.

Hawkins was sentenced to a prison term of one year and one month and was told that because of time served on remand he would be immediately released in custody.

Judge's sentencing remarks in full

Judge Michael Cullum told the defendants: “The headline figure is over half a million pounds loss of personal property and your actions have caused over £100,000 worth of damage.

“Additionally vehicles worth £235,000 were taken in the burglaries.

“These figures do not properly describe the misery that you have caused to the 42 home and business owners. The callousness behind your criminality means that your references about jobs and work ethic have little effect in any real mitigation.

“Each of you in this crime group has a pedigree of repeated offending. You have chosen serious and organised crime as your career to date.

“Those whose homes were violated have indicated that the large scale damage has seriously affected them with ransacking searches being carried out in their houses.

“There are many individual stories of the victims’ losses. Wedding rings from a first marriage were stolen, as was a trinket obtained after a bereavement of a spouse. Another felt compelled to move from their property which had been in the family for decades.

“There were tales of misery inflicted on commercial premises. These were not burglaries without a victim. You nearly destroyed Bourton on the Water Post Office in the process and the family living above the shop.

“Other premises were repeatedly targeted. A pensioner supplementing her income by selling jewellery had to close her business having lost uninsured stock. On two occasions two individuals were assaulted during the burglaries.

“You as a group have no compassion and no compulsion to stop your criminal activities. If you had you would have stopped much earlier. It’s hard to accept any degree of remorse when you continued this spate of burglaries over such a long period.

“You brought in the New Year 2020 by ruining other people’s year by the burglary of their homes.

“The burglaries were in many cases were targeted, often at night, because they were high value homes with desirable vehicles in the driveway.

“You knew exactly what you were doing. You acted as a group, but not always the same cast for each burglary.

“These conspiracies were complex and this is an exceptional case. I have concluded that those who pleaded guilty at an earlier stage in proceedings will get a reduced sentence.

“You are a gang. The fact that you all decided to take part in different burglaries makes little difference to sentencing.

“The value of the vehicles stolen amounts to almost a quarter of a million pounds. One of these vehicles still has not been recovered. Some of the vehicles were used in subsequent burglaries.”

The judge told the court that Hawkins falls into a different category as his role was limited to storing large amounts of cash and jewellery, the providence of which has not been identified.

Judge Cullum concluded: “I was struck that a gang, who were family men, but acted with such callousness and ruthlessness with little regard for others, can still be describe in glowing terms by those surrounding you. You clearly have a different side to your lives than the one we see.

“The sentences I will be passing are far in excess of the guidelines due to the volume of burglaries for which Beynon was involved in 29; Curran in 25; Brammer in 23; Smith in 29 and McCormick in 34.”

David Benyon, Jonny Curran, Ryan McCormick, Josh Brammer, Max Smith and Jason Hawkins's mug shots Pictures: GLOUCESTERSHIRE CONSTABULARY

'The distress to victims was unimaginable'

Sgt Kirsty Illife, who was praised by name by Judge Cullum, said the investigation into the burglary gang had been painstaking and complex.

“A significant degree of planning took place by the gang, who went equipped with tools when they targeted specific premises in order to ransack people’s homes, as well as auction houses, jewellers and a post office,” she said.

“The level of distress and upset caused to the victims is unimaginable. In some cases violence was used against them, and people were faced with balaclava-clad burglars in their own homes. Sentimental and irreplaceable items were stolen, but on top of that more than £100,000 worth of damage was caused to people’s homes and businesses.

“This was a meticulous and lengthy investigation and we worked together with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure those involved were brought to justice.”

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