Thieves steal $4.8M worth of Jaguar Land Rover engines

Thieves have stolen roughly $4.8 million dollars’ worth of engines from a Jaguar Land Rover plant in Solihull in the UK, allegedly using a prime mover – itself also suspected to be stolen – to tow away two trailers full of brand-new motors.

The theft occurred late on Tuesday evening last week, but was far from a Fast And The Furious-style escapade. Instead, the thieves calmly drove their truck into the plant, collected paperwork from the site to facilitate their exit, then hooked up a trailer full of engines before driving away.

Details of precisely how many engines have been stolen aren’t yet available, nor is it clear what type of engines they were. JLR’s high-performance supercharged 5.0-litre V8 would surely have made for an enticing target, though the more pedestrian diesel engines and petrol four-pots that power the bulk of Jaguar and Land Rover’s offerings would undoubtedly be easier to sell.

All seven were arrested in 2012, with the Holden insider sentenced to two years prison for his role in the crime. The value of the engines and transmissions that were pinched from under Holden’s nose was estimated to be around $2.5 million.