Man charged with alleged theft of £600,000 keyless cars

A man has been charged after a car in Leicestershire was stolen in a £600,000 keyless crime spree. Karolis Tauckela’s alleged crimes lasted nearly a year and spanned three counties before he was caught last week.

The car thefts are said to have taken place between August 2023 and earlier this month and Tauckela, from Spalding in Lincolnshire, was also involved in a number of failed attempted thefts of other vehicles. Targets ranged across Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

The 27-year-old is alleged to have stolen a BMW 530D from a property in Melton’s Byron Way on Friday, June 14. Police say it’s the seventh of nine thefts in the three counties that tie back to Tauckela.

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All the vehicles are said to be part of a series of keyless car theft offences, with the vehicles taken worth a total of more than £600,000. Three other vehicles were targeted but unsuccessfully taken during the incidents, all on the same day in February this year.

Tauckela was arrested in the early hours of last Wednesday (June 19) near Cambridge by traffic police. He was charged by Lincolnshire Police last Friday (June 21) with conspiracy to steal motor vehicles between August 2023 and June 2024. Police also charged Tauckela with handling stolen property and being equipped for theft – namely possessing two frequency relays for vehicles. devices and an antenna amplifier.

Tauckela appeared at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court last Friday, where he was granted bail. He is due to appear at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday July 19 and has been subject to strict bail conditions until then, including surrendering his passport to police, wearing an electronic tag and obeying a curfew between 9pm and 6am.

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