Million-pound car crime empire brought down as bosses jailed

Four men at the centre of a criminal empire buying, dismantling and exporting stolen cars were sentenced yesterday (Thursday, 26 September) at Brighton Magistrates Court. 

A detailed and painstaking investigation into the gang of four by Surrey Police detectives alongside Metropolitan Police and Hampshire Constabulary counterparts began after a previous case saw various criminals convicted for the theft of over 125 cars. Officers spent hours scrutinising phone messages and identified this was an organised criminal operation on a huge scale, with car thieves doing the dirty work for a central team who handled the stolen goods.

So began an investigation - spanning 17 months in 2022 and 2023 - to bring down the lynchpins of the crime gang.

Thieves delivered cars stolen from Kent, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and London. The four organisers worked out of two sites as their ‘chop shops’, where they would dismantle the cars, including a Ferrari that officers found cut in half. A swift relocation to a second site in Crawley took place last autumn once police had discovered the first site in Horley, but officers quickly tracked the enterprise down at its new HQ.

Michael Kozub, 46 (08.06.78) of Tooting Bec Road, Wandsworth, London and Filip Zablocki, 31 (10.04.93) of Sadler Close, Mitcham were the central figures. Described as the ‘go-to’ contacts for car thieves across South East England, they organised stolen cars to be delivered to their chop shop and kept in touch with an extensive network of convicted car thieves.

Both pleaded guilty earlier in the year. Kozub was sentenced to six years and three months for conspiracy to receive stolen goods, and the court imposed a serious crime prevention order on him. Zablocki was jailed for two years and eight months, for the same offence as well as possession of cocaine.

Dominik Mrzyglod, 46 (20.03.78) of Fernbank Avenue, Walton-on-Thames owned a transportation business and was responsible for getting the stolen cars - whether whole or in parts - out of the UK. Mrzyglod also pleaded guilty as his trial loomed and was sentenced to three years and one month in jail.

Mariusz Parafiniuk, 49 (10.01.75) of Kangley Bridge Road, Lewisham, was the gang’s mechanic. He was found guilty of conspiracy to receive stolen goods on Friday, 14 April 2024 after a trial at Guildford Crown Court. Yesterday he received a 15-month sentence suspended for two years and will pay £2000 in costs.

Detective Inspector Dan Voller of Surrey Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit said:

“Today’s sentences are a result of excellent teamwork between a number of teams in Surrey Police and joint working with colleagues in the Metropolitan Police and Hampshire Constabulary. This included hours of meticulous searching through mobile phone evidence to prove there was a case to answer for conspiracy. We traced a web of messages involving numerous people, across multiple phones and social media channels as deals were done for stolen high-value vehicles.

“Alongside that was detailed analysis of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) technology as we tracked the cars on their journeys, and of the gang’s bank accounts.

“Kozub claimed the storage unit was simply where he innocently kept his jet ski, but this was proven to be a lie. We recovered cars to the value of over half a million pounds and believe that the total value of the cars that passed through this gang’s operation is close to a million pounds.”

Acting Detective Chief Inspector Natalie Parker of the Metropolitan Police’s South Area Proactive Investigations Team said:

“It was great to work with our policing partners to tackle crime important to our communities. Through joint working it was established that both Surrey Police and the Metropolitan Police had identified members of the same group through separate investigations. Both organisations were then able to pool their resources to ensure a successful outcome for the victims in the case as well as the wider public. In South London alone we saw a reduction in burglaries of over 30% in the aftermath of this operation. I look forward to continue working collaboratively to achieve brilliant outcomes in the pursuit of justice.”