‘Chop shop’ kingpin offered criminal €10k to take fall after €460k stolen car parts bust

New details of the investigation into John Ayton (38), of Longwood, Co Meath, and his accomplice, Andrew Bailey (30), with a previous address at Kilmessan, Co Meath, can be revealed after they were given jail terms of three and two years respectively at Trim Circuit Court last week.

Gardaí received information of ­Ayton’s cash offer to the criminal after the man, who was made the offer, was ­arrested.

Following questioning by detectives, the man admitted he was making up the entire story of his involvement and had no involvement in the organised criminal enterprise. He was later convicted of making a false statement.

Ayton was not charged in relation to this strand of the investigation, but he is also suspected of offering at least one other criminal cash for taking responsibility for the stolen car parts.

The criminal enterprise involved stolen vehicles being brought to a “chop shop” in Stoneyford, Co Meath, where they were dismantled.

He was the go-to man for a criminal who is originally from the Crumlin area and was involved in a huge spate of car thefts

The parts were then brought to ­another rented facility near Straffan, Co Kildare, where they were stacked neatly, stored and sold to people involved in the motor trade.

In addition to admitting stolen property charges, both Ayton and Bailey admitted separate charges of possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

The Sunday World has learned Ayton was dealing directly with some of Ireland’s most prolific car theft gangs when the offences happened between July 2017 and October 2018.

“He was the go-to man for a criminal who is originally from the Crumlin area and was involved in a huge spate of car thefts during this period in counties Dublin, Meath and Kildare,” a source said.

Also bringing stolen cars to Ayton and Bailey to be dismantled was a prolific Lithuanian car thief who was living in the Ronanstown area of west Dublin at the time, it has emerged.

These gangsters were stealing mostly family cars and vehicles such as Nissan Qashqais and Hyundai Tucsons. ​

The keys to the cars were often fished through the owners’ letterboxes. In some cases, the vehicles were stolen without keys being needed.

“When one looks at the profile of many of the victims, it becomes very apparent that this crime spree was very mean-spirited in terms that these were working people, some of whom had young children and needed their vehicles to bring their kids to school,” a source said.

“These were victims who suffered massive inconvenience, with issues like their insurance premiums increasing, but also the fact that many had their personal effects that were in their vehicles just taken and dumped.”

Ten of the victims gave victim-impact statements to the court.

Judge John Martin outlined last week how they had suffered unnecessary disturbance to their lives as well as adverse psychological consequences.

After the arrest operation that led to the men’s arrest in October 2018, gardaí noticed a significant decrease in car thefts in the following months.

“For a while, the organised criminals behind this type of crime did not have someone to pass on the vehicles to, but, of course, many others have taken over from them now in the chop shop world,” the source said.