An alleged car theft gang conspirator was found in a stolen VW Golf on the night police interrupted the group’s night-time raids into Oxfordshire, a court was told.
Bernie McDonagh, 33, who denies conspiracy to steal, was one of several men in the hatchback when police stopped the stolen car in Banbury in the early hours of May 5, 2019, jurors at Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday.
In the preceding two-and-a-half weeks, the group were said by prosecutor Oliver Weetch to have made four raids from their native Coventry into Oxfordshire.
The barrister said: “The prosecution cannot say whether this defendant was or wasn’t involved in the previous three successful expeditions [on April 29/30, April 30/May 1 and May 2/3].
“There is no phone evidence relating to him as no phone was found on him. In fact, you may want to reflect on it; [there] being five young people in that car, only one phone was found and that was on the backseat of the car and belonged to [an alleged co-conspirator] George Chadwick.
“But there is no phone evidence in relation to this defendant, no forensic evidence to link him to the burglaries or thefts, nor is there any eyewitness evidence to say he was present at the relevant scenes.
“However, the prosecution say whether or not he was involved in the three previous expeditions, he was involved in the fourth.
“And because the prosecution do not have to prove when someone joined a conspiracy or how long they were a member of a conspiracy, we say it doesn’t actually matter whether he was involved in the three successful expeditions, as long as you are sure he was involved in the fourth, unsuccessful one stopped by the police.”
That fourth expedition had the hallmarks of the previous raids, the prosecutor said.
The thieves set off from Coventry late at night, taking the same route south via Banbury.
It was in the north Oxfordshire town that the VW Golf, which had been stolen from Wallingford overnight between April 19 and 20, was stopped by Thames Valley Police after a pursuit, the jury heard.
Inside the car were tools, masks and gloves. One of the screwdrivers found had been used to gain entry to a house two nights before in order to steal a car.
McDonagh was said to have answered no comment to questions put to him in his interview.
The seven stolen cars – all expensive VW Golfs, BMWs or Audis – were variously recovered in Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire. One of the cars was traced to a shipping container in Milton Keynes. One, an Audi A3, was never recovered.
The defendant, of Harcourt, Coventry, denies wrongdoing. The trial continues.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
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