An organised gang committed eight burglaries in a crime wave across Kent while filming themselves on Snapchat and staying at Pontins.

The trio broke into homes stealing car keys, bank cards and nine vehicles worth £68,000 in one month.

The gang filmed themselves and uploaded the footage to Snapchat Video: Kent Police

Police uncovered their ploy after discovering a mobile phone containing suspicious Snapchat videos of gang members inside a car, captioned ‘Working’.

The criminals targeted homes at night as their victims slept, across the Folkestone and Hythe district in September last year.

They systematically stole vehicles, swapped number plates, and stored them on nearby roads hoping to claim them at a later date.

Canterbury Crown Court heard numerous car owners woke to find windows and doors open, their homes strewn in mud and vehicles missing.

An investigation led police to room 99 of Pontins Camber Sands Holiday Park where the three thieves had been staying, prosecutors explained.

“During the course of the search of that room bank cards belonging to a victim were found and other vehicle keys.

“There was also a Samsung mobile phone, which had clearly been used by Mr Walker,” prosecutor Emma Smith explained.

“The phone had images and Snapchat videos.

“There was a short video showing Mr Paton in a vehicle pointing the camera at Mr Walker, the caption was ‘Working,’” she continued.

The vehicles worth from £500 to £10,000 were all recovered, apart from a Peugeot Partner taxi, the owner’s only means of making a living.

Harrison Walker, 20, of Whatley Avenue, London; George Paton, 21, of Olstead Road in Bromley; and Jayden Jones-McGilvray, 21, of Sheridan Road, Richmond; pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle and steal earlier this year.

Judge Catherine Brown told the duo their victims being inside their homes, alongside the degree of planning, were aggravating features of the case.

“The conspiracy as a whole involved eight houses, a total of nine valuable vehicles were stolen. The offences took place during a period of just over three weeks,” she added.

Walker was also sentenced for breaching a criminal behaviour order, dangerous driving, two lesser driving offences and two counts of handling stolen goods.”

Jones-McGilvray was handed three years and ten months custody, with Walker to be held for four years and two months.

Paton will be sentenced later this month to take into account further convictions; robbery, affray, theft and two counts of carrying a bladed article.

Walker and Jones-McGilvray’s lawyers highlighted their early guilty pleas in mitigation.

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