00:00A group of motorbike thieves who posted their crimes on social media sites have been jailed.
00:07Marshall Thomas, 18, Cameron Stevens and Brandon Carter, both 22, targeted dozens of motorbikes around Bristol.
00:15Their offending was posted on TikTok, where they were referred to as the repo or repossession gang,
00:21and Instagram with the incorrectly spelt handle, lock it and still lose it.
00:25Not only did they go out and commit some really quite horrific offences, not just the motorcycle theft itself,
00:32but indeed that attempt to violently assault people should they choose to intervene,
00:36of which there were several heroic members of the public that sought to put themselves in harm's way
00:41in order to protect someone's motorcycle from being stolen.
00:45What they then further did was to film their exploits after they had stolen them, or indeed during that theft
00:52process.
00:52They then would post online, on social media accounts, defining themselves as the repossession gang,
00:59or indeed the bravado of a term they defined as lock it but still lose it.
01:07It was all as if they almost felt they were beyond the law, that they were untouchable,
01:12and that they would not get caught, and that they would penultimately go on to offend in this way,
01:18for not just today, but for many more months and years to come.
01:21Bristol Crown Court heard the thefts dating from June to December last year
01:25were often carried out in broad daylight in public areas.
01:28One member of the public who attempted to intervene was punched in the head
01:33and required stitches to his inner ear,
01:35whilst another was threatened with a screwdriver and a security guard was struck.
01:39A teenage boy was also kidnapped and attacked, with footage posted on social media.
01:44The impact of that cannot be underestimated.
01:48This is a 15-year-old child within our community that has been subject to some of the most horrific
01:54situations by this group,
01:57and they then sought to go on to humiliate and belittle someone that is considered vulnerable within our society.
02:04Judge Peter Blair Casey, the recorder of Bristol,
02:08sentenced Thomas to 10 years in a young offenders institution,
02:11Stephens to three years in prison, and Carter to eight years in prison.
02:15This wasn't just about financial gain for these individuals and this group.
02:18This was about profile.
02:20This was about status.
02:21And this was about trying to provide an influence within society that, quite frankly, was wrong.
02:27And that they felt that they had a platform to do that by the criminal, you know, gains that they
02:34subsequently went on to do.
02:36I think the big thing for me is that they believed that they would carry on offending,
02:41not just tomorrow, but for many months to come.
02:44And I think it was ultimately that was their biggest downfall,
02:48is the fact that they were so complacent.
02:50They were incredibly brazen in their attitude towards the devastating impact and trail of destruction that they subsequently left.
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