Olympic equestrian hopeful, Legitimate, who acted as a getaway driver for armed thieves who stole £700,000 worth of cars including BMWs and Audis is jailed for two years

By Abe Hawken For Mailonline 09:37 BST twelve Jun 2017, updated 17:35 BST twelve Jun two thousand seventeen

• Talented horserider Kirstie Covele, Eighteen, was hoping to contest at the Olympics
• She drove a gang of armed thieves wearing masks to thirteen of thirty three burglaries in Kent
• Covele was caught when she triggered cameras and will be sentenced today

A British Olympic equestrian hopeful who drove a gang of armed thieves to steal £700,000 worth of cars including Audis and BMWs was today jailed for two years.

Kirstie Covele, Legal, was behind the wheel during thirteen of thirty three burglaries which were carried out in just two months last summer.

The group managed to steal a range of vehicles including a number of Mercedes, BMWs and Audis which amounted to £696,500.

They often wore ‘skeleton’ or ski masks when they raided the homes across Kent and south east London armed with screwdrivers.

Miss Covele, a talented horserider, later triggered automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras as she travelled in convoy with the stolen vehicles.

She told police after her arrest that albeit she drove her co-defendants around, she did not know of their criminal activity, and was simply paid petrol money.

Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard that the gang of eight – mostly teenagers and some aged just fifteen at the time – targeted the homes while the occupiers were asleep.

After stealing car keys, the gang would then make off with the vehicles to be either sold on with false plates, stripped of parts or burnt out.

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Police later found movie footage of one of the vehicles on fire in a field – a Mercedes worth £40,000 and stolen from Petts Wood in Kent – on the phone of one of the thieves.

The court heard they were paid £1,500 to be collective inbetween them for each car stolen inbetween June twelve and August fourteen last year.

Several break-ins would be committed in one night, with some residents having two cars stolen off their driveways.

The gang even had the audacity to target one road on two consecutive nights.

Former agricultural college student Covele, of Orpington, looked stunned as she was sentenced to two years in a youthfull offenders’ institution on Monday after admitting conspiracy to steal.

Father-of-three Thomas Ripley, 21, was described as the ‘controlling mind’ of the organised enterprise and involved in twenty one break-ins and thefts. He was jailed for five years.

Ripley, of St Mary Cray, Kent, together with Jack Hever, 20, and Freddie Friend, 17, of Orpington and 16-year-old Harry Turner, of Northfleet, admitted conspiracy to burgle.

Apprentice engineer Hever was sentenced to three years’ youth custody, Friend was given a two-year detention and training order, and Turner was sentenced to an 18-month detention and training order.

Shannon Kelynack, Nineteen, of Orpington, Charlie Parker, 16, of Orpington, and a 16-year-old lady who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal.

Kelynack was given two years’ youth custody and Parker was sentenced to a 12-month detention and training order.

The teenage lady was not at court today as she was sitting a GCSE exam. She will be sentenced tomorrow.

The court heard the burglaries were carried out in Bexley, Bexleyheath, Petts Wood, Orpington, Swanley, West Kingsdown, Otford, Dartford, Hartley, Strood, Higham and Larkfield.

Sentencing the seven gang members, Judge Adele Williams said the burglaries ‘bore the hallmarks’ of professional crime.

She said: ‘Implements were used to build up access and many of the householders were asleep in their homes.

‘I have read victim individual statements and they make plain not remarkably how badly affected they have been by thrse crimes, with feelings of disturbance of their homes as well as the financial loss and inconvenience they have suffered.

‘The houses were targeted for their high-value cars. They were disposed of either in their entirety or for their parts.

‘I have no doubt there were those higher up the chain who were older and more sophisticated criminals than you, but each of you played your part in this criminality.’

Shannon Revel, prosecuting, said the eight defendants were identified through mobile phone data and ANPR cameras.

She said: ‘A total of thirty three burglaries were committed over a two-month period and had the same key elements.

‘In groups of two or more, they broke into residential properties and in the majority the residents were at home in the early hours of the morning.

‘They stole cars ranging from Vauxhall Astras to Mercedes and BMWs, driving them away.

‘They then eyed one of two fates – number plates were switched and attempts to scrape off the identification numbers were made, and then sold on.

‘A petite number were demolished – smashed up and set alight. Implements were used to come in the properties. Some of the defendants wore masks and gloves.’

Covele was described as a hugely ambitious youthfull woman who aimed to contest at the next Olympics.

Sam Thomas, defending, said she became involved with the gang at a time of ‘trauma, distress and stress’ as her father was dying from motor neurone disease.

She presently works on a voluntary basis at a livery based in Orpington.

Kelynack was driving a Fiat Punto with Ripley, Hever and two of the 16-year-olds as passengers.

The Mercedes keys were found under a seat, as well as a large screwdriver, ski mask and gloves.

Kelynack – like Covele – acted as a driver in thirteen of the burglaries. Her barrister, Daniel Darnborough, said it was a reflection of her naivety and lack of criminal sophistication that she had used her own car.

A court order banning the naming of those under eighteen was lifted by Judge Williams, except in the case of the 16-year-old chick.

She said there was a ‘strong interest’ in the public knowing about the crimes, including the identities of those involved.

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