An Olympic hopeful and aspiring model who acted as the getaway driver in a incredible £700,000 car theft has been locked up for two years. Kirstie Covele drove her young accomplices to 13 of the 33 burglaries carried out across north Kent and south east London in just two months in the summer of last year.
The 18-year-old’s car then triggered automatic number plate recognition cameras as she travelled in convoy with the stolen vehicles.
She told police after her arrest that although she drove her co-defendants around, she did not know of their criminal activity and was simply paid petrol money.
Her father was dying from motor neurone disease at the time and the court heard she acted criminally as a consequence of ‘trauma, distress and stress’.
The gang of eight, mostly teenagers and some aged just 15 at the time, stole a range of vehicles, including high-value Mercedes, BMWs and Audis, with a total value of £696,500.
Wearing ‘skeleton’ or ski masks and armed with screwdrivers, they burgled homes in towns and villages in the early hours of the morning while the occupiers were asleep.
Having nabbed 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.
Police later found video 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 teenage girl was not at court yesterday for her sentencing as she was sitting a GCSE exam.
She will be sentenced today.