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Thick as thieves
Reporter: ANDREW RUDKIN
Date online: 30 January 2013
Robbers are outwitted by stolen phone’s tracker app
CARJACKERS who also robbed their victims’ smartphones were caught out when one of the mobiles led police directly to their door.
Ziggy and Patrick Cawley — beloeved to be cousins — carjacked three youngsters outside a McDonald’s restaurant in the early hours of the morning.
They were tracked by police after being given log-in details of one of the victim’s mobiles.
Officers admit without the activation of the “Find My iPhone” app, capture would have been near-impossible.
Ziggy (19), of Rollesby Close, Bury, and Patrick (18), of Bury New Road, Heywood, were both sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday.
The young victims were in a Seat car outside McDonald’s off Huddersfield Road, Oldham, in the early hours of last September 29 when the thugs struck.
The Cawleys threatened the driver with a Stanley knife and forced the victims out of the car, then drove away with their phones.
Officers tracked the GPS signal from the phone and found the Cawleys in the bedroom of a house in Canterbury Drive, Bury.
Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, said both Cawleys were fully clothed and in bed when officers sent a message to the stolen iPhone 4 — which made a sound from a drawer in the room.
Detective Inspector Dave Massey, of Oldham CID, told the Chronicle it was sensible for any smartphone owners to download such an application.
He said: “Most of them are free. This one was crucial in finding these offenders.”
The younger of the Cawleys escaped a further custodial sentence after pleading guilty to two burglaries just weeks before the carjacking.
Patrick Cawley was handed an exception by Judge Adrian Smith at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court for his “vulnerability” and “psychological” issues. He jailed him for an extra 12 months, to run concurrenty with the carjacking sentence.
The teenager climbed through the window of a house in Cavendish Way, Royton last September 2 and stole the keys to a Ford Fiesta while he owner was asleep. The £11,000 car has never been recovered.
He also stole a handbag from a house in Cedar Crescent, Chadderton a week later from an extremely ill woman who was asleep downstairs, the court heard. Most of the property in the second case was recovered.
Judge Smith told Cawley: “I am giving you exceptional circumstances due to your vulnerability and psychological reports, which are particular to you. If it was not for these factors, these would have been consecutive sentences.”
Comments
Well done judge adrian smith, why not just let them go home in a paid for taxi? 3 Years is nowhere near enough for carjacking, threats to a person with a knife,robbery and burglary. These morons will be back on the streets in 18 months and their trail of heartbreak and despair will no doubt continue. 10 Years minimum if I had my say. Some day we will realise that crime rates fall when the criminals are behind bars. Tut tut tut.......
11,000 grand car missing, property still missing from the ill lady. Utter scum. Come on judge vulnerable and psychological issue's, ha, just think of the victims they will feel all the emotions now.
Doh! Thick indeed. That's second only to the thieves who were followed home by police tracing their footprints in the snow.
just from looking at this morons picture you can tell the lights on but nobodys at home, what goes around comes around , although yet again to lighter sentence for these scroats.
Not very clever. GF Bunn will probably blame the drivers for boiling water. The truth is that there are too many Ziggy types around town.
Filth .
It's a pity it wasn't in January.The police could have followed the trail of these Neanderthals knuckles dragging in the snow
Brought to book by an iphone. Priceless!
These two. thugs, thieves? Never!!! And they look so handsome and refined.
Poid Sense I don't get hung up on things like property. If Ziggy and his cousin needed a car so badly maybe they should be allowed to keep it, just like the takers of Scholes's car. There's always someone worse off than yourself and what did Jon Lennonn say - imagine no possesions, nor religions too. Think on!
I'd have given him a sentence for having the name "Ziggy" - despite being named that as a child, I'd have been getting that changed as soon as I turned 18!
Your not Judge Adrian by chanse GFBunn? All the goody to shoes what bought this country to it's knees. Just give them the knife, eh? Throw away the key! Above us only sky? And Matty Smith.
the parents must be so proud to have to such handsome and clever sons
Brilliant headline Chronicle. Thick as thieves, with eyes like spit holes in snow! Another couple of reasons why we should go nowhere near Oldham if scum like those two charmers are lurking.
Have Your Say
Since when were people armed with Stanley knives classed as vulnerable?
By Old_Mancunian @ 30/01/2013 12:51:15