AN INVESTIGATION into a burglary involving high-speed vehicles near Malmesbury has led to the discovery of an illegal garage.  

Thieves nicked three sets of car keys from a house in Hullavington on Friday, May 3 and fled the scene in a stolen Audi S3, BMW x3 and Volkswagen California.

Police have since recovered the Volkswagen, which was crashed and abandoned about 100 miles away from the property.

Extensive inquiries led the Wiltshire Burglary Team to an area in Coventry where they located the stolen Audi on the forecourt of a garage on cloned plates.

Soon after police uncovered what is believed to be an illegal garage known as a 'chop shop', where a further two partially stripped stolen vehicles were located plus a significant amount of car parts believed to have been stripped from other stolen vehicles. 

The total value of stolen property found in the garage was more than £150,000.

PC Jack Williams, from the burglary team, said: “Thanks to the quick reactions of the county burglary team we were able to locate and recover a high value stolen vehicle prior to it inevitably being broken down into parts and sold on.

"We were also able to disrupt a serious organised crime group and a joint investigation will continue with West Midlands Police."