Premier League footballers Ferrari and Range Rover recovered by Essex Police

A Ferrari and Range Rover Sport belonging to two Premier League football stars, with 100 caps international caps between them, were found in shipping containers scheduled to travel to Dubai from London Gateway Port in Stanford-le-Hope.

The footballers had their cars stolen in neighbouring counties.

Officers in Essex Police's Stolen Vehicle Intelligence Unit located them and returned them to the pair. 

The cars are thought to have been worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

They are among 517 vehicles or parts of vehicles recovered by the force so far in 2023.

The SVIU’s PC Paul Gerrish, PC Phil Pentelow and analyst Hannah Gerrish located the vehicles in shipping containers at the port.

Recovered: red Ferrari recovered by police (Image: Essex Police)

Once a car is taken, thieves may look to quickly sell it on – even for way under the market value – strip it for parts, or ship either the whole car or parts of the car to areas including the Middle East and Africa.

There, the vehicles can be sold for two or three times more than they would cost in the UK.

Thieves or handlers of the stolen vehicles have been known to obtain false or cloned identities, then sell the vehicles on to unsuspecting members of the public in the UK or distribute them to other criminals.

Officers: PC Phil Pentelow and PC Paul Gerrish (Image: Essex Police)

This summer Essex Police launched Operation Ignition, which brings together the SVIU, Roads Policing and investigators to dismantle the criminal gangs behind the thefts.

The SVIU has returned vehicles to hundreds of victims and deal with everything from family saloons to supercars.

PC Paul Gerrish said one of the best parts of the job is returning a vehicle to someone who didn’t expect to see it again.

He said: “Every stolen car is important to us and we work as hard as we can to get them back to their owners.

“When you phone someone up and tell them we’ve got their car with their kids’ car seats and the pushchair in the back, or other personal items, it’s hugely satisfying.

“We are creating a hostile environment for car thieves. We know what to look for and we know how and where they operate.”

One of the footballers came to the team’s base to be reunited with his car and praised the SVIU’s work.

Stolen: stolen Range Rover recovered from a shipping container (Image: Essex Police)

PC Phil Pentelow said: “He was genuinely thankful and taken aback by the lengths we had gone to.

"His car was clearly very dear to him, and he was very impressed with the service he’d had from the police.

“Even though he plays for one of my team’s biggest rivals, he was a nice guy and down-to-earth. It was good to help him.”

Paul, Phil and Hannah work with manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, BMW and Mercedes to improve vehicle security.

However, they say the biggest vulnerability is people leaving their cars unlocked.

Phil said: “Double lock it and check it, we still see CCTV where people’s cars aren’t locked.”