Brothers ran £120,000 'chop shop' selling stolen BMW, Audi and VW parts on eBay to live 'lucrative lifestyle'

Two brothers ran a ‘chop shop’, breaking down high end stolen cars and selling the parts on eBay - and raking in more than £120,000. Connor and Kieran Maher operated out of a Radcliffe mill and took around 16 new and expensive cars which they broke down in order to sell parts on.

The cars recovered ranged from wholly intact, to merely wheels and panels, Minshull Street Crown Court heard. Many of the cars could almost be fitted back together.

Connor, 29, had set up an eBay account under the name ‘connormaher92’ before changing it to ‘C.Parts’. The site substantially increased in traffic following the Connor and Kieran’s from custody for separate offences.

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“A speculative search identified that eBay user account connormaher92 listed numerous vehicle parts for sale. It was clear from the adverts that the vast majority of parts were from ‘late model’ or nearly new vehicles, with volume parts from the same relatively new vehicle,” Mark Kellet, prosecuting, said.

On March 17 2020, officers attended at Unit 58, Pioneer Mill, and found Kieran on the phone outside, and Connor driving a white Berlingo van at the back. Following a search of Connor’s address in Poynton in April, officers found a Ford Fiesta, a Range Rover and a BMW which contained vehicle parts, £100 in cash, a registration plate and a radio frequency detector used to block transmission from devices such as tracking devices.

On the Range Rover, the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) had been ground away. The VIN displayed on the driver’s door and the front windscreen matched the registration of the vehicle. However, the engine number