Inside 'Aladdin's Cave': Police find huge haul of stolen car parts and cannabis factory during raid on businessman's industrial units  

Father-of-three admitted cannabis production and handling stolen goods

An 'Aladdin's Cave' of stolen goods was unveiled today by police after they smashed a black market car parts racket operating on eBay.

Hundreds of parts were stripped from stolen vehicles then itemised and stored in a warehouse before being posted for sale on the internet auction site as 'scrapyard seconds.'

Police raided Ramzan Ahmed's premises in Bolton after noticing components sold by his online firm Permanent Discounts were suspiciously clean and undamaged - and discovered the stolen car parts together with a cannabis factory.

The 34-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting cannabis production and 14 counts of handling stolen goods.

Police raided the former IT worker's premises in Bolton, Greater Manchester on March 17, 2011 and uncovered a huge array of items looted from cars and other vehicles stolen across the North of England.

They including wheels, engines, car seats, exhaust pipes, windscreens and chassis of more than a dozen stolen vehicles, which were in various stages of being taken apart.

Police searched Ahmed, 34, to find he had with him a set of keys to another unit next door.

When they opened the second unit they discovered a large cannabis factory of 323 plants capable of producing a yield of almost 13kg of cannabis. Sold on the streets the cannabis was worth up to £135,000.

Ahmed's fingerprints were also found on cannabis production equipment inside the factory.

Details of the find emerged at Bolton Crown Court where Ahmed of Bury was jailed for four years.

Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, told how Ahmed first came to the attention of the police special investigation branch in 2011 after officers noticed components from relatively new cars were being sold on eBay by his company called Permanent Discounts.

Amongst the large number of car parts stored at Unit 10, were doors, tailgates, bumpers and other parts from at least 14 stolen vehicles, including a Lexus, Mazda RX8, a Toyota RAV4 and three BMW 5 series.

The total value of the stolen cars identified was at more than £130,000.

Shortly after the raids Ahmed arrived only to drive away when he spotted the police. He was arrested a short time later on the M602.

In mitigation defence lawyer Shirlie Duckworth said the father-of-three Ahmed had initially set up a legitimate car parts business after losing his job as an IT worker with Fujitsu.

When it proved to be unsuccessful he found he was 'unable to resist' when thieves approached him offering to sell him stolen cars.

Passing sentence Judge Peter Davies told Ahmed: 'It was a sophisticated commercial dismantling of vehicles. You were in charge of an Aladdin's Cave of stolen car parts.'

A second man Asim Ahmad, 32, of College Drive, Whalley Range, Manchester was jailed for three and a half years after being found guilty of production of cannabis.

Det Con Claire Waring of Greater Manchester Police said after the case: 'Both Ahmed and Ahmad were involved in this large scale production of cannabis, which would have been supplied in the local area and across Greater Manchester.

'The Judge described the stolen vehicle operation as a 'sophisticated commercial dismantling of vehicles', with the value of these vehicles to their owners being in the region of £130,000.

'I would encourage anyone who has any information about drugs and other crime in their area to contact police so we can act upon it, as we have done in this case.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk 28/03/2013