A career conman who wore a high-vis vest and told valets he had been authorised to collect their customers' cars only to go on and steal high-value vehicles is finally behind bars.
Brazen Conrad Williams, 29, targeted Yorkshire car salespeople, valets and office workers during a three-month spree that saw him steal 10 high-value cars.
Leeds Crown Court heard on Wednesday how Williams - who has been appearing before the courts since he was 15 - continued to steal vehicles from businesses across the county even after he had been arrested. Prosecutor Stephanie Hollis said Williams was joined by an accomplice who drove him to the locations in a van with cloned or false registration plates and he would steal the vehicles.
The court heard the crimes Williams, of Pinder House in Skipton, was to be sentenced for began in August 2020 when he visited a car dealership in Holbeck, Leeds. Ms Hollis said: "He indicated he was interested in getting a van and the other man [he was with] said he would look around.
"While the defendant distracted the salesman, he went into the office and stole the keys to a Mitsubishi. When he returned they said they weren't interested but a short time later, the defendant came back and asked the sales assistant to get the keys to the van so he could take pictures of the interior.
"[As the salesman was doing that] he got the car and drove off."
In September that year, a woman dropped her Range Rover off to be valeted at a car wash in Knottingley, but when she returned to collect it, the car had gone. Ms Hollis said: "The defendant went and informed the owner he was her brother and had been sent to get her vehicle. He was given the car keys and drove away."
Williams was later arrested while in a van. It was said another man was in the rear of it and found to be in possession of £1,700 in cash. The woman's fuel card and laptop bag was found. The defendant was arrested and interviewed but replied "no comment" to all questions asked. He was released on bail but continued his offending and in October 2020 stole a car from the Cross Green Approach business centre in Leeds.
Ms Hollis told the court: "The defendant went and spoke with an employee asking if there were any jobs available. He gave a false name and phone number. He was advised the company would get back in touch with him and escorted out. He returned around ten minutes later and told him [the employee] he had misplaced his car keys in the warehouse. He was left alone in the office and during that time he stole the car keys to a Range Rover.
"CCTV saw him walking to the car outside and driving it away. It also showed the defendant had arrived in a van."
Later that same month at premises in King Street, Bradford, Williams arrived wearing a high-vis jacket before he spoke to staff and then stole a Land Rover car. Williams continued to use the high-vis jacket including during a burglary at Malton Industrial Estate near York where he told staff members he was looking for a Hermes drop-off and stole a Mitsubishi car.
Ms Hollis told the court none of the vehicles stolen have been recovered and only eight of them have been valued to a total of around £254,600.
It was said Williams has made 39 appearances before the courts for 70 offences. His first appearance was in January 2009 when he was just 15. Williams, who appeared over a video link from HMP Wealstun, is currently serving a 25-month sentence for an offence he committed in Bradford where he told a pensioner she owed £5,000 for repairs required for her roof. Evil Williams even escorted the woman to the bank and watched as she withdrew the cash.
Andrew Stranex, said Williams had pleaded guilty to the offences at the plea, trial and preparation stage of the court process. He told the court: "These are brazen offences but the sophistication is putting on a hi-vis jacket and having a van with different registration plates and the brazenness to walk into businesses with lax security.
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"My submission is that they were planned but not sophisticated to the extent you will have seen in other cases."
Sentencing Williams for seven burglaries of commercial premises and ten thefts, His Honour Judge Simon Batiste told him: "These were clearly targeted and carefully planned offences to steal high value cars...the obvious inference being that they were ordered to be sold on for a profit for you.
"Your modus operandi was to enter premises in a brazen manner indicating that you were there for legitimate purposes and ask for or steal keys and take the vehicles. Most of these offences were committed with other people...you wore a hi-vis jacket to give yourself and air of legitimacy."
Williams was jailed for five years and three months, which will be served consecutively to the one he is already serving.
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