A CAR theft ring that stole luxury vehicles worth more than £500,000 from various Black Country locations in the space of a month have been jailed.

Mohammed Khan, Kieran Gordon, Callum Brown, Reiss Dunn, Jason Hadley, Aaron Simpson and Conrad Ashe were involved in a racket that saw high-end cars stolen from August 8 to September 11 2014, from areas including Brierley Hill, Kingswinford, Halesowen and Oldbury.

Most thefts were carried out following early morning burglaries in which car keys were stolen but members of the gang were also found with devices to programme blank keys.

Their spree started on 8 August when a Nissan GTR was taken from a driveway in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, followed by an Audi A6, an Insignia and a Peugeot RCZ – cars with a total value of £100,000 – from Brierley Hill’s Andrews Close the next night.

Further luxury marques – including BMWs and an Audi RS5 – were targeted before police arrested Conrad Ashe on August 20 when he was spotted on CCTV in Castle Vale driving a Range Rover stolen from Oak Barn Road in Hurst Green.

A week later West Midlands Police officers noticed Dunn and Simpson in a car linked to a BMW theft earlier that month in Oldbury’s Bernard Road.

Driver Dunn, 24, and 25-year-old Simpson, both from Dunslade Road in Erdington, rammed the unmarked car and in a desperate bid to evade capture careered through red lights and on the wrong side of carriageways before being forced to a stop in Old Hall Lane, near Pheasey.

Simpson was arrested at the scene and keys to an Audi stolen on August 20 from Jasmin Croft, Kings Heath, found in his possession. Dunn fled across fields but was arrested a short while later having been collected in a vehicle by Hadley.

And in the early hours of September 11, Khan, 24, Gordon, 18, and 18-year-old Brown were arrested from rooftops in Manor Lane, Halesowen, following reports they were casing up a raid on the nearby Audi dealership.

A search of the scene uncovered lock picking gadgets and a key-coding device to program blank keys. Brown, from Unketts Road in Smethwick, was found with keys to an Audi owned by a resident in Hayley Green, Halesowen – and another stolen Audi key was found hidden in Khan’s bedroom.

Analysis of Brown’s mobile phone revealed footage of him wheel-spinning a BMW 4x4 stolen from an address in Bicton Avenue, Brierley Hill, on August 28, while detectives also found SMS chat between Khan and Brown plotting the theft of an Audi Q7 on September 1 in Halesowen’s Quarry Lane.

A message from Brown read “I got a Q7" prompting Khan to enquire “wat cula? Sweet bruv, seen you in an hour wen its parked up".

All seven went on to admit conspiracy to steal motor vehicles and were sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday (April 15).

Khan, from Walford Road in Sparkhill, was jailed for four years; Simpson from Dunslade Road in Erdington was jailed for 30 months; and Ashe from Insworth Drive, Castle Vale, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Dunn, from Dunslade Road, also admitted driving dangerously and was jailed for a total of 44 months and banned from driving for five years.

Gordon, from Mill Road, Cradley Heath, and Brown from Unketts Road in Smethwick also admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence in Tat Bank Road, Oldbury, on September 9 2014 when they threatened café staff following a row with two other customers.

They were put behind bars for 52 months and 54 months respectively.

Hadley, from Harcourt Road in Erdington, was handed a 12-month prison term suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Richard Simpson, said: “This group caused widespread misery across the region…residents waking up to find their vehicles stolen and realisation people had sneaked into their homes to steal keys.

“We managed to recover some of the cars and seized forensic evidence linking the men to the thefts, plus CCTV footage showed some of the defendants in stolen cars.

“Our officers picked them off over the space of 22 days, culminating with the great arrests of Khan, Brown and Gordon near the Audi dealership. The local policing unit had patrols nearby on the lookout for car criminals so, with back-up from traffic and the dog unit, the scene was contained within eight minutes of the initial 999 call."

The Nissan GTR was recovered by police at a lock-up in Short Heath just hours after being stolen, while an Audi RS5 taken from Yew Street, Wolverhampton, on 22 was found stripped down at a premises in Highgate’s Warner Street.

The group was also linked to car thefts in Oak Barn Road, Halesowen, on August 19 when a Range Rover was driven away; Barrs Road, Cradley Heath, on August 23 when a BMW and Vauxhall Meriva were taken; and an Audi Q7 theft on August 29 in Dale Road, Kingswinford.

A VW Jetta stolen from Brickhouse Lane, Rowley Regis, on August 29 retrieved by detectives outside Gordon’s address in Mill Road, Cradley, and was found to have his fingerprints on the number plate.