Serial offenders facing jail over '£1million car crimewave' across west of Scotland

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Three car thieves are facing jail for their part in a year-long £1million car crimewave. The serial offenders targeted high-end Ford cars and vans in a spree across the west of Scotland.

William Cairns, Mark Busby and Robert Busby used hi-tech equipment to steal high-end Ford cars and vans.They successfully made off in motorhomes, transit vans, SUVs and sports cars thanks to specialist keys and electronic decoders.The gadgets allowed them to gain entry to vehicles in 28 different towns, cities and villages, start the engines and drive away while causing little to no damage to the motors.But technology also proved to be their ­downfall, with police officers probing the gang discovering their mobile phones were detected near the location of a number of the thefts.At Paisley Sheriff Court, the three men faced 125 charges of stealing cars worth £1million – with the trio admitting to 67 thefts of vehicles worth more than £342,000.In many of the thefts, the vehicles were taken from outside the homes of the owners as the country was in lockdown in 2020. ­Procurator fiscal David McDonald told the court the three men were involved in the “repeated theft” of Ford vehicles, predominantly Transit Vans, and car models including, Kuga, Fiesta and Focus, usually the higher value RS and ST models.McDonald revealed the thieves were involved in thefts in Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Glasgow and Lanarkshire.Mark Busby, 38, admitted stealing a Ford Transit motorhome valued at approximately £32,000 in Erskine in January 2020.Cairns, 36, admitted stealing a white Ford Focus RS worth about £30,000 from a property in Renfrew on May, 21, 2020.Mark and Robert Busby, 39, and Cairns all admitted stealing a white Ford Transit van in Kilbarchan on June