Cocky car thief targeting high-end vehicles totalling £4 million jailed after posing in ‘selfie’ videos

A young criminal who stole over 30 high end vehicles valued at £4m in less than a year has been jailed after he was caught out by posing in a video selfie.

Oliver Cooper, 23, was involved in a multi-million pound stolen car ring in the Midlands.

But he was caught out after posing in a video selfie while driving the £55,000 Range Rover Sport, stolen from a busy Birmingham retail park.

The ring he was involved in stole 17 Range Rovers, 14 Audis, Jaguars and Mercedes with a value totalling over £4 million.

West Midlands Police arrested him at his home in Sylvan Avenue, Northfield on 16 September 2021 - two phones were seized and analysed by digital forensic episodes.

Videos, messages and images revealed the 23 year old had been on a crime spree targeting dozens of high-performance cars across Birmingham, Solihill and Sandwell.

Videos on his devices showed the interiors of many of the burgled cars, and messages listed details of the makes and models that had been taken.

DC Miller, from the Force Priorities and Vulnerabilities Team who led the investigation said his mobile phone “proved a goldmine” and was his “downfall”.

He said: “Cooper’s mobile phones revealed to us footage from inside many of the vehicles that he’d been involved in stealing. They proved a goldmine for us and was vital at helping us identify the stolen vehicles, and in some cases being able to reunite them with their owners.

“But it also proved his downfall as in one clip he is caught in the shot. It helped us link him to the offences which saw dozens of expensive cars, some valued at up to £80,000, being stolen from across Birmingham – Northfield, Rednall, Selly Oak, Stirchley, Harborne, Barnt Green, Rubery – as well as Solihull and into Halesowen and Oldbury.”

DC Miller added: “And we worked with Birmingham City Council to retrieve CCTV footage of him after he ran from a stolen car which we’d tracked through the city centre.”

CCTV footage captured the daylight burglary, and a stolen Ford Fiesta that drives up to a parked 4x4.

Cooper gets out of the passenger side of the Fiesta and breaks into the Range Rover. He then drives off in the Range Rover and the Ford Fiesta can be seen following in convoy.

The high-end vehicle was dumped in a road just over three miles away and by that time on 27 January 2021 it was already on fake number plates.

It was recovered 30 minutes after it had been taken, and at some point during that time Cooper filmed the cocky selfie.

Over a week later, on 8 February, officers pursued Cooper in a car chase through Birmingham city centre. CCTV footage of the high speed pursuit led to cops identifying Cooper, aided by Birmingham City Council’s cameras.

West Midlands Police have recovered and returned a few cars to their owners, including the Range Rover Sport that got him busted after he took it in Selly Oak on 27 January 2021 and ditched it on Grimley Road.

Between July 2021 and May 2022 he committed at least 35 offences.

Cooper admitted conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to handle stolen goods and was jailed for six years and eight months at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday 8 August.