Members of an organised crime group jailed for a series of burglaries in Kingston, South London, and Surrey have had their sentences increased.

Two of the five men, who stole high-value cars worth more than £215,000, have had their sentences increased to more than 13 years in prison, with an additional man having his prison time rise to more than eight years, according to Surrey Live.

The news organisation writes: "After appearing at the Court of Appeal on Thursday, March 13, the trio's sentences for robbery were increased after being deemed "unduly lenient". 

"Five men were initially sentenced to a combined total of 27 and half years following a trial at Guildford Crown Court on Monday, December 9."

Harry Mackay,from Epsom, and Rico Persechino, from Kingston, will both now serve 13-and-a-half years in prison, having previously been jailed for five years and seven-and-a-half years respectively. 

Jason Connors' sentence was increased from five years and four months, to eight years and four months.

Surrey Live says: "The remaining two who were sentenced for their involvement in these crimes have not had their prison sentences increased, with both Frankie Mackay and Stevey Mackay being given three years and three months following their trial in December 2024."

In 2023, police identified a series of residential burglaries which could be linked via a distinctive Audi A8, which was one of just fifteen in the country.

The Audi was then seen at a petrol station with a wonky number plate which didn't match its genuine details.

Soon after, a second car suspected of being linked to the series was identified by a distinctive GB sticker on the back.

However, the challenge remained to identify the people involved and a complex investigation began which used a variety of tactics to uncover the full extent of their crimes.

Between June and August 2023, members of the group burgled multiple homes and were also linked to other offences including keyless car theft, where vehicles were taken close to the owners' house or from the front drive. 

Areas targeted included Epsom, Walton-On-Thames, Croydon, Chessington, New Malden, Raynes Park and Surbiton in the Metropolitan area.

During the spree, the gang would scope out a target vehicle, and either commit a burglary to steal the keys or use illegal devices to gain keyless entry.

They would then drive the vehicle away and park it elsewhere for a short time to see if any tracking devices had been activated.

In the meantime, they would identify similar vehicles which were insured, source illegal fake number plates, and fit them to the stolen vehicles to try and evade detection. 

On some occasions the stolen cars would ultimately end up at 'chop shops', where they were broken up into parts and sold for profit.

During the burglaries at both residential properties and some shops, they caused thousands of pounds worth of damage and on one occasion, three of the men (Harry Mackay, Rico Persechino and Jason Connors) - assaulted the occupier of an address with weapons.

After gathering a body of evidence on 29 August 2023, police proactively apprehended Rico Persechino and Harry Mackay outside a shop in East Grinstead.

Mackay tried to escape by running inside and heading to the staff door, but he was swiftly caught.

Officers later found a keyless car theft device that he'd tried to discard inside the shop.

The police investigation used a variety of tactics including identifying cloned number plates, tracking vehicles through automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and matching the suspects' descriptions and clothing to CCTV footage.

During their burglaries, the group would often bring a large white carrier bag to carry the stolen goods and a comparison of CCTV footage enabled officers to tie offences to them due to the appearance of this same bag each time.

Speaking when the gang were first sentenced in December, lead investigator Detective Inspector Daniel Voller said: "This was a sophisticated and organised operation and exposing the full extent of their crimes was only possible thanks to the hard work and diligence of everyone involved, from detectives to intelligence teams."

"These thieves had no regard for anyone but themselves and escalated their offending from stealing cars outside homes to breaking inside and committing a serious assault. 

"We have worked relentlessly over many months to prepare a strong case against them and I'm pleased our efforts have resulted in getting them behind bars."