A THIEF who persistently raided more than £40,000 of high value car parts from vehicles at JCT 600 in Bradford has been jailed for five years.

Mohammed Shamraze returned time and again to smash windows and grab iDrive units from BMWs parked at the firm on Sticker Lane, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Shamraze, 24, of Bradford Lane, Laisterdyke, Bradford, had a special tool for removing car radios in his possession and previous convictions for similar offences, prosecutor Paul Canfield said.

He pleaded guilty on the day of his trial yesterday to five offences of theft at JCT 600 and to smashing the window of a VW Golf parked on Westbury Street in Bradford in broad daylight on April 8 to steal the Sat-Nav.

Shamraze also admitted stealing a Sat-Nav from a car parked at a Rotherham garage in September, 2019, causing £2,000 loss and damage. Mr Canfield said he had eight previous convictions for 12 offences, mainly for stealing from cars.

He was in breach of two suspended sentence orders when he committed the Bradford offences.

The high value raids on vehicle at JCT 600 began on January 24 this year when he stole the entire central console from a BMW 420 causing loss and damage to the value of £5,500. He was back on February 28 when he targeted three cars, racking up a £9,000 bill for the loss and damage, returning again on March 14 and 28 to make similar forays.

On his final visit, on April 4, he broke into a black BMW, stealing the iDrive, causing loss to the owner of £5,000. In a statement read out in court, JCT 600 said Shamraze had caused the company “immeasurable” loss.

The financial cost of his crimes was £40,792 but added to that was an increase in the insurance premium, the cost of upping security and the erosion of the trust and confidence of customers leaving their vehicles at the premises.

Cars were now moved overnight, the CCTV cover had been increased and fencing put up. Vincent Blake-Barnard said in mitigation that Shamraze had spent six months in custody on remand and now realised what a mistake he had made.

He had fallen into the wrong company, run up a debt to his cocaine dealer and sold on the car parts to pay it off. He was fully remorseful and keen to make a fresh start in life.

Shamraze had a job in prison and had taken a drugs awareness course, Mr Blake-Barnard said. He was jailed for a total of five years today by Deputy Circuit Judge Neil Davey QC who activated the suspended sentence orders in full to run concurrently.