Bragging car thief jailed for over 14 years after reign of terror on Greater Manchester communities

Following an intricate investigation into a cohort of car thieves, codenamed Operation Napoleon, a ninth man has today been sentenced. He pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary, six counts of theft, six counts of robbery, and two counts of handling stolen goods.

In July 2023, we convicted seven teenagers of a string of burglary and thefts across Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Specialist officers from our Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit identified a pattern of offending, and detectives from our Serious Organised Crime Group were brought in to link the incidents and secure justice for the victims.

Through the original investigation, detectives soon identified Kyle Camp as being involved. An image from one of the original defendant's phone from our first investigation into this criminal group, showed the car they had stolen, taken during what seemed to be a reconnaissance.

When he was arrested in October 2022, a download of his phone showed him communicating with Camp, with Camp bragging about the cars he’d stolen.

Over a period of time, Camp and his acquaintances went on a ruthless spree of offending. Often stealing several cars in one night. Approaching several victims, they threatened them with violence if they didn’t hand over their car keys, often armed with knives or tools.

On Tuesday 28 December in 2021, a car was stolen from a drive on Boardale Avenue in Moston. Eleven days later, the car was recovered by police on Thornley Close, Grotton, displaying false number plates. From inside the car, police seized a snood from the driver’s door. When examined, a partial DNA match was found, linked to Camp.

On Monday 23 May, Camp entered an address on Repton Avenue in Droylsden after drilling the lock on the back door. A grey Volkswagen Golf and keys to a white Volkswagen Transporter were stolen from the address. A video from Camp’s phone, which was recovered on his arrest, showed the rear of the stolen Golf, with his phone connecting to the cell mast in the area of the offence at the time if was committed.

Hours later, at around 3am, Camp and his acquaintances were at their next targets address on Granby Street in Chadderton. The victim was awake, praying, when he was alerted to a sound in his house. At kitchen he saw a man in a balaclava, looking through his window, accompanied by two men in possession of knives.

The victim tried to stop them from entering, but they managed to steal the keys and escape with his car.

On Thursday 16 June 2022, in Uppermill, Oldham. A man left his friend’s house and made his way home. During this journey he felt that he was being followed by a grey BMW. ANPR evidence confirmed this.

As the victim parked on his drive and exited his car he was approached by two men, Camp and Ryan Pearce, who was jailed in September and 2023, after pleading guilty to the offence. He was violently assaulted, threatened with a knife, and pinned to the ground. The offenders stole the keys and ran off to a grey BMW and left the scene.

The next day, officers recovered the grey BMW. It had false plates on but enquires revealed that the car was stolen nights earlier from Framingham Road.

On Tuesday 21 June, on Hillcrest Road in Rochdale, Camp approached the victim who was in his blue Seat Leon Cupra. He threatened him, saying if he didn’t hand over his keys, he’d be hurt. Phone data showed Camp sent a picture of the stolen Seat from his social media account, just 18 minutes after the incident took place.

On Thursday 30 June, police received a report that a victim had been approached by two men with knives. Shortly before 4am, police arrived and spoke with the family who explained that he had been woken up by a man in a black mask, holding a knife, demanding he hands over the BMW keys. The man was dragged from his bed and forced to wake his brother up and hand the car keys over.

On Monday 4 July on Turner Street in Denton a female victim arrived home when she was approached by a group of males who demanded the keys to her car. As they left the scene they collided with another vehicle. Text messages revealed the males laughing about this incident saying ‘I got blocked in lol’ and ‘had to ram em.’

On Wednesday 6 July on Carpenters Walk, Droyslden, Camp and his associates broke into a house to steal the keys of a BMW X4 M-Sport. In the early hours of that morning, Camp took a video of the car and sent it to people on social media.

On Tuesday 12 July on green Street Middleton. When the victim woke up in the morning, he noticed his daughter’s bag was gone, and then saw his back door has been left wide open. The victim noticed the two motorbikes he stores in the garage had been taken. A picture from Camp’s phone, taken at 5am that morning, shows him on the stolen motorbike.

At 11:30pm on 12 July 2023, Camp was arrested by police at a kebab shop on Stockport Road in Longsight. He was originally arrested for two burglaries, and from this, specialist detectives pieced together a timeline of events which placed Camp at each and every incident.

Over the space of seven weeks, Camp was involved in 15 different burglaries.

Despite answering ‘no comment’ to every question and originally pleading not guilty, Kyle Camp has today (Friday 24 January) been jailed for 14 years and four months.

Detective Constable Chris Chinnery, from our Serious Organised Crime Group, said: “Kyle Camp’s crimes not only had significant financial implications for our victims, but most distressing, they had huge emotional impacts on victims who were either violently assaulted or threatened with weapons by Camp. One man was left feeling so unsafe that he felt he had no choice but to move to a different part of the country.

“This case included hours of meticulous searching through mobile phone evidence, tracing messages involving numerous people, across multiple phones and social media channels as deals were done and Camp bragged about his stolen cars, showing complete disregard the victims.”