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Two men were arrested after Greater Manchester Police (GMP) smashed a car ringing conspiracy worth more than one million pounds.
Ashley Halstead, 40, and Timothy Ellor, 33, were the ring leaders of the operation, which sold stolen cars by disguising them as legitimate.
Halstead was sentenced to four years in prison following a hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, while Ellor was jailed for two years and four months.
The court heard that the 19-man group would steal cars, and find legitimate registration numbers belonging to other vehicles of the same model. The stolen car was then 'cloned' to take on the identity of the other.
Number plates were changed and the new registration number was used to list the vehicles on market places such as Auto Trader, making them available to prospective buyers for HPI checks.
Other changes made to the vehicle's identity made it very difficult for buyer to spot that the cars were illegitimate, according to police.
Stolen V5 vehicle registration documents, stolen road tax discs, personal details of innocent people, fraudulent MOT certificates, fabricated receipts of previous sales of the cars and bogus vehicle history check documents were all used to create a fabricated history for the cars.
The car ring operated in three tiers - those who managed the list of cars, those who posed as sellers, and those who allowed the vehicles to be sold at their addresses.
GMP brought down the operation by launching Operation Fennel, during which more than 60 stolen cars with a total value of £571,718 were seized. Of these, 39 had been sold to innocent buyers, who paid a total of £280,000.
The ring's activities came to light after Cumbria Police seized a stolen Land Rover Freelander that had been sold on to in innocent party. The vehicle was identified as one that was stolen from Didsbury and its tax disc was part of a batch that went missing from a Manchester post office.
GMP targeted 25 addresses in Tameside and Rochdale as part of Operation Fennel and the defendants were arrested.
The stolen cars seized were valued at a combined total of £650,000, a figure which rises to more than one million when the financial impact on the burglary victims was taken into account.
Superintendent Neil Evans from GMP said: "Today's outcome is the culmination of a sensitive, large-scale and thoroughly planned police operation into an organised criminal network who laundered cash from cars that were stolen after people's homes were broken into. In short, these people made money from burglaries.
"It is a priority for Greater Manchester Police to combat organised crime, reduce domestic burglary and tackle all stealing offences. We hope that operations such as this demonstrate our commitment to these priorities, and show that we will continue to try and make people feel safer in their homes.
"The tragedy here was that for every vehicle involved, there were numerous victims throughout the process. The Operation Fennel team has come across some tragic stories, such as victims of burglary who felt violated, people whose identities were hijacked, and those who saved up to buy the car that they needed, only to find themselves badly out of pocket.
"The systematic scale of the deception is such that we have had to not only carry out a thorough, detailed inquiry, we have also worked in partnership with a number of key agencies to whom we are extremely grateful.
"Today's result would not have been possible without the assistance of the Crown Prosecution Service, Auto Trader, DVLA, CDL Vehicle Information Services, who own and operate 'my car check' and 'my text check', HPI, AVCIS, World Pay, Rochdale Council, Tameside Council, the Department for Work and Pensions and Greater Manchester Probation Trust.
"We have also worked with online market places such as Auto Trader and will continue to work with these companies in the future.
"We urge prospective buyers of cars to visit the direct.gov.uk website (www.direct.gov.uk/buyerbeware) for general security advice, to always use bankers' draft rather than cash, and we also want to make it clear that if a price looks too good to be true, there is every chance that it is."
