Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
by Julia Roberts
Two Lithuanians have gone on trial accused of plotting with others to steal high value cars.
Maidstone Crown Court heard a stolen BMW worth £31,000 was traced by police to the driveway of a property in Heathfield Road, Maidstone, in July last year.
It was displaying false number plates, although the tax disc in the car’s windscreen still bore its true registration number.
Prosecutor Dominic Connolly said the car, which was fitted with a tracking device, was stolen from Epping in Essex overnight between July 15 and 16 last year.
The BMW was traced to the address in Heathfield Road. Mindaugas Cesonis, 33, was living there at the time and told officers he had purchased the car that night in London.
Also at the address was Arunas Skupeika, also 33, of Tonbridge Road, Maidstone.
Both men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to steal motor vehicles and parts between December 2011 and July last year.
They are also accused of three offences of handling stolen goods, namely receiving three BMW cars between the same dates.
Mr Connolly told the jury that the handling charges are alternatives to the conspiracy offence.
He explained that the stolen vehicles were taken to Heathfield Road where they were broken up into parts and sold on.
“The Crown allege that these two defendants were party to an agreement with others to steal high value motor vehicles and then to sell on those vehicles as parts, having been stripped.”
The trial continues.