A “professional” criminal who went on an £18,000 wrecking and thieving spree at a Volkswagen garage in York has been jailed for over three years.
Luke Ashley Mitchell, 27, smashed his way inside five vehicles parked on the forecourt at JCT600 Volkswagen York at Centurion Park, Clifton Moor Gate, York Crown Court heard.
After smashing each vehicle’s front passenger window with a tool, Mitchell then opened the glove boxes before removing the entertainment systems from the central consoles.
Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said that four of the five vehicles were customers’ cars awaiting repair. One of the vehicles belonged to the garage and was for sale.
The incident occurred late on 8 January last year and into the early hours of the following morning. When staff turned up for work later that morning, they found five cars had been broken into and called police.
Mitchell, of Greenway Drive, Bradford, was later identified forensically after a tool found inside one of the vehicles had his DNA on it.
About ten days later, he left a trail of destruction at another garage, this time a VW dealership in Blackpool where he used the exact same method to damage and steal from six vehicles.
He again used a tool to smash the front-passenger windows before stealing the entertainment systems from the central consoles.
“This time blood was found inside one of the vehicles,” said Ms Morrison. He was forensically identified again, this time by his blood, and charged with 11 counts of theft from a vehicle in York and Blackpool.
34 previous convictions

Mitchell admitted the offences and appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.
Ms Morrison said the total cost of the damage and thefts from the incidents in York and Blackpool came to £37,105. The repairs to, and thefts from, vehicles at the VW garage in York came to £18,025.
Mitchell had 34 previous convictions for 76 offences including numerous thefts, burglary, interfering with a vehicle, battery and damaging property.
Defence barrister Zarreen Alan-Cheetham said Mitchell had tried to turn his life around by moving to “the other side of Bradford” and had fathering responsibilities.
Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, branded Mitchell a “professional thief”.
He added: “On two thieving expeditions, one in York, one in Blackpool, you set out – no doubt with a vehicle, no doubt with tools, no doubt with intelligence and reconnaissance – to raid VW dealers.”
Mitchell was jailed for three years and four months but will only serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.