Three Birmingham men who between them stole around £350,000-worth of high-performance cars in a crime spree spanning six Midland counties were jailed yesterday.

Aaron Brazier, Stephen Bowley and Matthew Humphreys crept into people’s homes to steal the keys to luxury cars parked on driveways.

They were arrested in May under a new regional crackdown on serious and organised cross-border crime that united four Midland police forces.

The trio were jailed for a total of more than 11 years at Stafford Crown Court for what the judge described as a “sophisticated” “professional” and “lucrative” operation.

In March, the trio struck at homes across Sutton Coldfield, Kenilworth in Warwickshire, Burton, Northampton, Branston, Banbury, Evesham, and Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the hunt for car keys.

Stafford Crown Court heard how they would sneak into people’s homes through unlocked doors, often while their victims were in another room watching television or speaking on the telephone, and swipe their keys.

Between them they took luxury cars, including Audis, BMWs and Mercedes. Some of the cars have vanished and are thought to have been shipped abroad or sold on under fake identities.

Brazier, 24, of Haywood Road, Tile Cross, pleaded guilty to seven burglaries, ten thefts and one count of handling stolen goods and asked for 14 other burglaries to be taken into consideration. He was jailed for five years.

Bowley, 32, of St Giles Road, Kitts Green, and Humphreys, 27, of Coventry Road, Sheldon, each pleaded guilty to three burglaries and four thefts. Humphreys also admitted two handling offences. They were both jailed for three years and four months.

Sentencing the trio, Judge Mark Eades said: “This indictment reflects sophisticated and professional criminality. A moment’s reflection indicates how professional it must have been.

“Considerable skill appears to have been used to identify houses with open doors.”

He added: “You must have had, and indeed did have, the means to dispose of high value motor cars. You had contacts to whom you could fence out these cars.

“This was quite a lucrative business. Such crime inevitably results in long prison sentences.”

Det Insp Dave Hughes, from Staffordshire Police, who led the operation, said: “This was a complex and detailed investigation which spanned several counties.

“The offenders struck multiple times stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cars, causing much distress to their victims.

“Criminals don’t recognise force boundaries, so a co-ordinated police response was crucial.”

Under the new regional collaboration, experienced detectives from one of the four forces are appointed to lead a small unit of officers gathering evidence and local officers are then used to carry out enforcement operations

Assistant Chief Con Suzette Davenport, from West Midlands Police, added: “The forces pooled intelligence through the regional intelligence unit in ­Birmingham and quickly identified the offending pattern. “This operation demonstrated the strengths and benefits of this arrangement.”