Burgling brothers who raided eight homes for jewellery found hiding in Leeds hotel
They travelled to Lancashire to ransack homes
A pair of brothers who drove 87 miles to break into a series of empty homes in one night have both been jailed.
Neeve and Sevi Conley stole hundreds of items, including thousands of pounds worth of jewellery, which they wrapped in pillow cases taken from the victims’ homes.
The pair admitted eight dwelling burglaries and appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week over a video link from custody.
Both, who have a long list of previous burglaries, had been recalled to prison on licence.
The court heard that the homeless pair drove from West Yorkshire to Lancashire in a Land Rover Freelander on January 25.
ANPR cameras were later analysed and were able to pinpoint their movements.
They targeted homes at which the occupants were not home. All of the properties were within a radius of just a few miles.
They ransacked the homes, smashing their way in by either putting windows through or kicking out door panels.
They found items of value, including jewellery, then bundled them into the pillow cases from the scene before moving into the next home.
Afterwards, the stopped in a car park where they went through their loot, throwing out items they thought were of no value, before setting off again.
They were eventually traced to a hotel in Leeds where they had checked in.
When police came to arrest them they tried to flush the Freelander keys down the toilet.
They both gave largely no-comment police interviews, but Sevi said it was not him on the CCTV footage captured at the various properties they targeted.
Neeve has 22 previous convictions for 40 offences, including four burglaries. Mitigating for the 24-year-old, Safter Salam said he accepted full responsibility and made no attempt to minimise his involvement.
He said nobody was home at each property, so there was no confrontation or violence.
Sevi has 26 convictions for 49 offences, including five burglaries.
For the 30-year-old, Ashleigh Metcalfe said he accepted that the younger brother had been under Sevi’s “leadership”.
She said since being released from his last stint in prison, father-of-two Sevi was facing homelessness, so turned back to crime.
However, she added: “He can provide no explanation as to why.”
The judge, Recorder Helen Chapman, described their actions as “breathtaking”, particularly the “callous disregard” they had for people’s personal belongings which they left dumped at the side of the road when they surveyed their loot.
She said there must have been “significant planning” and that it couldn’t have been “by chance” that they stumbled across eight consecutive empty houses.
She handed them each a jail sentence of five years and eight months.