Moment 'professional' burglars laugh and joke with each other during £2.6m 'Merry Xmas' crime spree

A group of men have seen their rein of terror ended after they conducted a £2.6million crime spree across the West Midlands. The gang of five criminals targeted firms in the region stealing metal and other goods using the machinery at each site.

Adam Shakespeare, David Smith, Lee Fletcher, Royston Hallard and David Williams have now been locked up for their crimes. Sickeningly, the group set their sights on businesses over the Christmas period when they were more likely to be quiet.

At one site, they even wrote 'Merry Xmas' and 'Happy New Year' on the floor in spray paint next to 'Ha Ha Ha'. This lead to them referring to themselves as the Home Alone characters the 'Sticky Bandits.'

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Video footage has been released which shows some of the men laugh and joke as they rob one of their targets. The men can be seen wearing face coverings in the footage.

They would steal vehicles from the firms and use others on cloned plates to take the material back to their base at an industrial unit on Watery Lane, Wolverhampton. Police said that the group would sell their ill-gotten gains to scrap dealers.

The gang went to great lengths to avoid being caught with three of the gang members using 17 mobile phones between them over the course of the crime spree. One gang member filmed a business near a cemetery as part of a recce. He was later recorded talking about how people nearby thought he was mourning at a graveside and not ‘scoping out’ a potential target.

Ten firms in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, Bilston, Perry Barr, Brierley Hill, Kidderminster, Tamworth and Shrewsbury were hit. The total loss of materials and vehicles has cost firms £1.6m and the gang did not care about the mess they left behind or the damage they caused to vehicles and buildings, police said.

Costs to the businesses were estimated at £200,000, while the loss of sales, the cost of beefing up security and increased insurance premiums amounted to over £800,000. Five men went on to admit conspiracy to burgle commercial premises between December 2022 and June last year.

They were sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, November 8. The judge ruled as follows:

• Adam Shakespeare, 31, of Harrowby Road – jailed for six years and five months

• David Smith, 36, of Cannock Road - jailed for six years and four months

• Lee Fletcher, aged 33, of Bunkers Hill Lane – jailed for six years and four months

• Royston Hallard, 30, of Coronation Road – jailed for six years and four months

• David Williams, 44, of Willenhall Road – jailed for three years and four months

DC Kelly Whyte, from West Midlands Police Major Crime Proactive Unit, said: "This was serious, organised and professional criminality on an industrial scale, that saw the theft of materials and vehicles valued at more than £1.6m, not to mention the disruption to business and emotional impact on those affected.

"They would focus on sites that were tucked away from houses, and struck over holiday periods when they knew the risk of them being disturbed was lower. The videos recovered from their mobile phones show how they relished what they were doing and would laugh and joke with each other.

"When we identified similarities between the offences, we launched a major investigation based on forensics, analysis of mobile phones and CCTV which meant we were able to move in and arrest the gang in dawn raids last June.

"We’re pleased that they are now starting significant prison sentences, which should send a message to anyone involved in serious and organised crime that we will hunt them down and bring them to justice."