GPS trackers help snare Wakefield burglars stealing cars to pay drug debt
They were handed more than 10 years’ jail
A pair of bungling burglars were easily found after the cars they stole were fitted with GPS trackers.
With the owners knowing the location of their cars, CCTV then helped quickly identify Damian Lee and James Reynolds as the culprits.
They were both jailed for a combined total of more than 10 years at Leeds Crown Court this week.
The court was told that in the early hours of May 22, they targeted a home in Knottingley in which they burnt off the lock to the property and snatched a designer handbag containing nearly £200, mobile phones, car keys and then the BMW parked outside.
When the occupiers woke and realised what had taken place, they checked the car’s tracker and found it had been at Purston Park in Featherstone at 3.10am.
Police reviewed CCTV from that area and found it was in convoy with a Mercedes to which Reynolds was insured.
Footage also showed both defendants working to locate and remove the tracker.
The car was later found on Camelot Court in Pontefract, where 39-year-old Lee lives.
But before being arrested, on May 26 they broke into another home in Pontefract, stealing an Audi A5.
Again, the tracker led officers to where it was dumped on The Circle, on Chequerfield estate.
CCTV was reviewed and showed Lee getting out of the Audi and walking home. He was carrying a drill and wearing gloves.
Reynolds, 34, was arrested after leaving a probation appointment on June 4.
High-purity cocaine worth up to £1,400 was found in his Mercedes, along with ketamine worth up to £560.
A mobile phone seized also showed clear messages related to drug dealing. He has previous convictions for selling drugs.
Both defendants gave no-comment interviews to police.
The pair appeared in court this week over a video link from HMP Leeds and admitted two counts of burglary and two of theft of motor vehicles.
Reynolds, of no fixed address, also admitted counts of dealing in Class A and B drugs and criminal damage after it was heard he used a hammer to break a lock into a property.
Mitigating for Lee, Jemima Stephenson-Finn said he has just one previous conviction for possessing cocaine. She said he got involved with the burglaries to pay off a mounting drug debt.
She said there was “genuine remorse” and is ashamed of his behaviour, adding: “He became reliant on cocaine.”
Lee had worked as a porter at Pinderfields Hospital and now “wants to get his life back on track”.
Reynolds has a lengthy criminal record and was last jailed in 2024 having been found with £32,000 worth of drugs.
Mitigating, James Littlehales said he to had a long-standing issue with drugs. He said that after being released from jail from his last conviction he gained employment but was fired after failing a drugs test.
He then continued to take drugs. Mr Littlehales said Reynolds is now on a drug-free wing in HMP Leeds.
The judge, Recorder Simon Kealey KC, gave Lee a three-year sentence, and jailed Reynolds for seven years and three months.