Trainee WPC joined gang that traded £4m worth of stolen cars

Emma Rayfield's boyfriend helped organise the operation in which false identities were created for stolen Ferraris, BMWs and Porsches.

The gang bribed an official at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to help them give new identities to more than 300 luxury cars using the details of vehicles which had been scrapped abroad.

Documents claimed the cars had been imported into Britain when they were in fact 'ringers' which had a new identification number welded on to them.

David Adams, 31, a registrations officer at DVLA offices in Sidcup, South-East London, was paid up to £500 a car to issue false documents.

Anthony Holt, 42, brought in his girlfriend Rayfield, 32, persuading her as well as members of his family and friends to sign documents and allow their addresses to be used for correspondence, Southwark Crown Court in South London heard.

The couple, who had a son together, have since separated.

Rayfield quit the Metropolitan Police, where she was training, soon after her arrest. When the gang was smashed by the Met, the cars were confiscated and customers were left tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Martyn Bowyer, prosecuting, said: "Over 300 vehicles with a combined retail value of between three and four million pounds fell within the scope of the investigation.

"The aim was to sell desirable, high-quality vehicles on to innocent members of the public. In reality the purchaser was buying a stolen car.

"The police never identified who was actually stealing the cars but there is a strong inference that whoever the thieves were they were in close contact with those at the heart at this case."

Details of the racket emerged at a sentencing hearing for eight of the ten-strong gang.

Ringleader Robert Taylor, 52, had bribed Adams of Barnehurst, South-East London, who admitted one count of corruption and was given a 250-hour community service order at an earlier hearing.

Matthew Wilson, 52, of Sidcup, was given a six-month jail term suspended for two years after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud.

Jason Okoh, 32, of South Norwood; Taylor, of Peckham; Holt, of Sidcup; and Mark Danlardy, 32, of East Dulwich, all South-East London, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud.

Omar Abbas, 35, of Peckham, denied the same charge but was found guilty. Rayfield, of Orpington, South-East London, has pleaded guilty to forgery and handling stolen goods.

Michael Kingsley, 40, of Hastings, East Sussex, and Terrance Harding, 31, of Tooting, South-West London, have admitted conspiracy to handle stolen goods.

Taylor, Abbas, Okoh, Holt, Danlardy, Rayfield, Kingsley and Harding, are due to be sentenced tomorrow.