South London gang chopped up stolen supercars to sell abroad in £1million operation
Four men at the heart of a £1million criminal network that pulled apart supercars and sold them abroad have been sentenced. Michael Kozub, 46, of Tooting Bec Road in Wandsworth, and Filip Zablocki, 31, of Sadler Close in Mitcham, were the 'go-to' contacts for car thieves across South East England, organising an extensive network to deliver motors to their chop shop.
On Thursday (September 26), Brighton Magistrates' Court heard how detectives from the Met Police, Surrey Police, and Hampshire Constabulary followed the scent after various criminals were convicted for the theft of 125 cars in 2022. So began a 17-month investigation, with hours spent looking at phone messages to work out who the lynchpins were.
What police found was an organised criminal operation 'on a huge scale', with car thieves doing the dirty work for a central team who handled the stolen goods. They would deliver cars stolen from Kent, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and London, with four organisers working out of two sites as their 'chop shops'.
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After a raid on a site in Horley in Surrey - where officers found a Ferrari that had been cut in half - the criminals moved their HQ to Crawley in West Sussex, but police were onto them here too.
Kozub was jailed for six years and three months and got a serious crime prevention order after he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to receive stolen goods. Zablocki was jailed for two years and eight months for the same offence, and for possession of cocaine.
Dominik Mrzyglod, 46, of Fernbank Avenue in Walton-on-Thames, owned a transportation business and was responsible for getting the stolen cars - whether whole or in parts - out of the UK. Mrzyglod also pleaded guilty and was jailed for three years and one month.
Mariusz Parafiniuk, 49, of Kangley Bridge Road in Lewisham, was the gang’s mechanic. He was found guilty of conspiracy to receive stolen goods after a trial at Guildford Crown Court in April. Last week he received a 15-month sentence suspended for two years and will pay £2000 in costs.
Operation worth £1million
Detective Inspector Dan Voller of Surrey Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit said: “Today’s sentences are a result of excellent teamwork between a number of teams in Surrey Police and joint working with colleagues in the Metropolitan Police and Hampshire Constabulary.
"This included hours of meticulous searching through mobile phone evidence to prove there was a case to answer for conspiracy. We traced a web of messages involving numerous people, across multiple phones and social media channels as deals were done for stolen high-value vehicles.
“Alongside that was detailed analysis of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) technology as we tracked the cars on their journeys, and of the gang’s bank accounts.
“Kozub claimed the storage unit was simply where he innocently kept his jet ski, but this was proven to be a lie. We recovered cars to the value of over half a million pounds and believe that the total value of the cars that passed through this gang’s operation is close to a million pounds.”
'Burglaries fell 30 per cent'
Acting Detective Chief Inspector Natalie Parker of the Metropolitan Police’s South Area Proactive Investigations Team said: “It was great to work with our policing partners to tackle crime important to our communities. Through joint working it was established that both Surrey Police and the Metropolitan Police had identified members of the same group through separate investigations.
"Both organisations were then able to pool their resources to ensure a successful outcome for the victims in the case as well as the wider public. In South London alone we saw a reduction in burglaries of over 30 per cent in the aftermath of this operation. I look forward to continue working collaboratively to achieve brilliant outcomes in the pursuit of justice.”
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