It may please young persons car insurance holders to know that two young men who were involved in car crime have been sentenced for their offences.
Arrested in connection with a house break-in last December when they left footprints in the snow, one 20-year-old and an 18-year-old carefully planned the thefts of luxury vehicles throughout Greater Manchester while they were on bail.
However, they were caught by police when one of the car thieves' victims noticed that they had posted photos of themselves posing in front of their stolen vehicle on the social networking website Facebook.
Using the images on Facebook and on mobile phones, police were able to connect the two men to other thefts which had occurred in the area in the first half of 2011. Messages posted to the 20-year-old on Facebook also indicated that he was stealing vehicles to order.
The pair, who might have had young drivers car insurance to help them appear above board, had taken vehicles with a retail value of around £200,000 overall.
Both of the men confessed to eight crimes including burglaries, handling stolen goods, and theft.
The 20-year-old with nine previous convictions was sentenced to remain in a young offenders' institution for 50 months, and the 18-year-old with ten previous convictions was sentenced to 40 months.
The judge stated that since modern cars were impossible to hot-wire "those bent on stealing high-value cars either have to rob the owners of keys or burgle their houses to get them."
Young persons car insurance holders in Greater Manchester can now rest easy in the knowledge that there are two fewer car thieves in the city.
Any drivers worried about car crime in their area may want to purchase tracker car insurance which uses telematics technology and can help police find a stolen vehicle more quickly.