Watch: Sophisticated but inept luxury car thieves crash Bentley into trees - and are now jailed

Four members of a gang of luxury car thieves have been jailed after stealing more than 50 high-end motors worth nearly £4 million.

The string of sophisticated thefts took place across the South East and included expensive brands such as Range Rovers, Rolls Royces and Bentleys.

Perry Lovejoy, 29, Luke Jackson, 28, Billy Harrison, 30, and Harry Sales, 28, targeted keyless vehicles using a 'master device' to copy the signals of the vehicles' keys and transmit them to a second device that unlocked the cars.

All four admitted charges of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to acquire criminal property and were sentenced collectively to 12-and-a-half years behind bars for stealing a total of 53 cars valuing over £3.7m.

Jackson had additional offences taken into account after admitting to stealing a further 42 cars with a combined value of £2.1m.

The gang's thefts took place over the course of a year across multiple counties in the southeast of England. They were arrested at the end of April last year after an investigation involving intelligence, forensics, numberplate recognition, call data, witness testimony and CCTV footage.

During the investigation, officers discovered that the gang used the ‘relay attack’ technique to target keyless luxury vehicles including Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Land Rovers, Range Rovers and Alfa Romeos. The method involves using a master device to copy the signal of a vehicle's key and transmitting it to a second smaller device, which replicates the key and unlocks the car.

CCTV footage of one of the gang's thefts shows one of the men reversing a silver Bentley into two gates inside a large property and making off with the car after successfully accessing the vehicle.

Detective Constable Matt Earl, of Surrey Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said the thefts, enacted out of "pure greed", had had a "huge" financial impact.

He said: “This was a large-scale investigation that was made possible by the hard work and dedication of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, as well as the support and collaboration of other neighbouring police forces.

“The level of criminality that these four people undertook was significant and had a huge financial impact. These men acted out of pure greed and had no regard for how their crimes may affect the lives of their victims.

“We are glad that these criminals have been successfully brought to justice and will now have lots of time to think about their actions whilst sitting in prison.”

Jackson, from Croydon in southeast London, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after also admitting two offences of burglary committed whilst stealing four of the cars and being handed 18 months in prison to be served concurrently, as well as having his thefts of the additional 42 cars taken into consideration.

Perry Lovejoy, of Horley in Surrey, was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a nine-month consecutive sentence for admitting being concerned in the supply of cannabis, after officers found incriminating messages on his phone.

Harrison, of Coulsdon in south London, and Sales, also of Croydon, were locked up for three years each.