A CROOK who terrorised farmers by conspiring to steal £380,000 of GPS equipment from more than a dozen north Essex estates has been handed a prison sentence of three years and ten months.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard yesterday 30-year-old Gintaras Jankauskas, a former lorry driver, admitted to a charge of conspiracy to steal following a string of raids across north Essex farms, including locations in West Bergholt and Langham.

Jankauskas was part of the organised operation alongside Aidas Cesna, who stole the electronic devices so he could sell them on to clients in Lithuania, the court heard.

The thefts took place over a four-week period from September to October last year, during which time the police received 17 different reports of thefts from farming vehicles which had been stripped of their GPS devices.

The technology is heavily relied upon by farmers who farmers who use GPS systems for mapping land and recording crop yield.

Investigators traced 15 of the thefts back to Jankauskas and Cesna using automatic number plate recognition technology, with the vehicle registered and insured under Jankauskas’s name.

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Laura Knightly, prosecuting, said the offences took place on three separate dates and that the thefts were part of an organised operation.

She said: “All the thefts have the hallmarks of professional gangs stealing to order, stealing in the knowledge that they can sell the items on at high value.

“Generally speaking, this involved damage to tractors and theft of agricultural navigational systems, those items being of typically ranging in value from £4,000 to £50,000.”

Passing the sentence, Judge Walker said although Jankauskas had no previous convictions, the fact he intended to sell on the equipment was an aggravating factor.

He said: “The combination of factors caused me to move up considerably within the range [of sentences].

“The sentence is one of 46 months imprisonment – half of that is to be served before you are automatically released subject to an automatic deportation, but that’s not a matter for this court.”

Aidas Cesna, Jankauskas’s co-conspirator was sentenced in July at Chester Crown Court for separate theft offences, and will serve a four-year prison term.