by Julia Roberts

A businessman who fled to Thailand after his arrest for plotting a high-value car-ringing scam has been jailed for five years.

Paul Stone, 46, was said by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court to be “a significant participant in a well-planned and seemingly effectively-implemented conspiracy of a sophisticated kind”.

Stone, together with his then business partner Owen Saunders and brother Mark Stone, sold on 20 stolen cars worth more than £400,000 to unsuspecting buyers.

Over a 14-month period the gang netted £211,074 for the cars.

Prosecutor Anthony Prosser said once a vehicle had been stolen, checks would be made using Stone’s account with the HPI vehicle database to obtain details such as chassis numbers from legitimate cars of the same make and model and similar specifications.

The checks enabled the conspirators to also identify whether any such cars were subject to finance agreements.

The stolen vehicles were then cloned with the genuine details and sold on through publications such as Auto Trader. Buyers were also supplied with registration documents.

Stone, of Grecian Street, Maidstone, was arrested in November 2004 in a Land Rover Discovery worth £25,000 as he tried to sell it to two officers posing as buyers.

Mr Prosser said it was Stone’s HPI account which enabled the conspiracy.

“He was also specifically involved in the selling of five vehicles, present when another was sold and in the final stolen car when he was arrested,” he said.

Stone admitted conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property between September 2003 and November 2004.

The father-of-one was charged in March 2006 but fled to Thailand, where he was later jailed for two years for theft and fraud.

After being released by the King of Thailand under an amnesty celebrating his 60 years of rule, Stone was arrested last year on an international warrant.

He also admitted three offences of obtaining money transfers by deception.

He duped people into handing over £1,000 deposits under the pretence that his former home in Millbrook Close, Tovil, was available to rent.

He was jailed for three-and-a-half years for conspiracy, 12 months consecutive for deception and six months consecutive for failing to attend court.

Stone is likely to be released within about 20 months as 308 days served on remand in Thailand will count towards the sentence.