Fake taxi drivers kidnapped and robbed drinkers in Coventry

[dutchman]

They threatened or used violence against their victims



Two cousins who kidnapped and robbed revellers in Coventry by posing as taxi drivers have been jailed.

Vasiele Stoian and Englezo Tanase toured the city centre on the lookout for drunken revellers before luring them into their car with promises of cheap lifts.

However, once inside the victims were assaulted or threatened with violence and made to hand over bank cards and PIN numbers.

The pair were jailed on Thursday, June 6, for seven years each having admitted striking three times inside seven days in November 2017 – but it’s suspected they may have committed up to 10 robberies.

On November 4, 2017, the pair picked up a man outside Spon Gate pub and used his card to withdraw £300 in cash and make contactless payments at an eastern European mini market.

The following day they collected a man who’d been drinking in Birmingham. He passed out in the back seat to find himself being driven around Coventry at high speed; his cards were used to withdraw £250 in cash.

And on November 11 a man got into what he thought was a taxi in Spon Street before being robbed of bank cards which were then used to buy petrol and a McDonald's.

West Midlands Police detectives identified the pattern of offending and linked a Mercedes used in the offences to Stoian’s address in Stepney Road, Stoke.

Officers raided the property on November 28 where the 20-year-old was arrested and stolen phones were recovered. Clothing matching that worn by the offenders was also found in the address.

Tanase – now aged 19 but who was just 17 at the time – was arrested later the same day from his home address in Park Street, Foleshill.

Both tried blaming each other, plus unknown accomplices, for the robberies and insisted they were innocent passengers and not willing participants.

However, detectives seized CCTV showing the Romanian nationals using stolen bank cards at petrol station forecourts, in shops and at cash points.

They still denied three counts of kidnap and three counts of robbery – but on day one of their trial they entered guilty pleas and were jailed.

[rebbonk]

Send them home to serve their sentences. I'm sure Romanian prisons are harsher than ours.