Five males who allegedly have been stealing cars, breaking into Canberra homes and businesses, and driving dangerously to avoid arrest are being actively hunted both in the ACT, and across parts of NSW.
Some members of the group are understood to have travelled up from Wagga Wagga, in the NSW central west, and linked up with another group from Gungahlin to embark on an alleged prolonged crime wave.
NSW police attached to the Monaro, Hume and Riverina commands are also keen to apprehend the young suspects accused of taking stolen cars across the border to commit property crimes in Sutton village, north of the ACT, and in the Queanbeyan area.
The alleged offenders have been captured on CCTV and police have released imagery of them after efforts to formally identify them have proved fruitless.
The five youths, whose ages are undetermined, are believed to be regularly moving between the ACT and regional NSW in efforts to evade arrest. Police suspect they are not licensed to drive.
Police allege they are actively targeting homes and businesses that appear to be easy targets, in an effort to regularly steal vehicles.
These vehicles are then allegedly being used to commit commercial burglaries and have been involved in multiple fail to stop incidents on Canberra roads.
Police say the five are suspected to be part of a serious spike in property crime in which 60 commercial burglaries were committed in December, a huge jump on the rolling monthly average of 38 over the previous 12 months, and similar but as-yet-undisclosed number in January.
Anyone who has any information which can help identify the males and assist the police investigations is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, quoting case reference 7336308.
