
A violent car thief who targeted drivers in Tameside has been jailed.
Kyle Camp was the ninth member of the gang to be locked up following an investigation codenamed Operation Napoleon.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary, six counts of theft, six counts of robbery, and two counts of handling stolen goods.
In July 2023, seven teenagers were convicted of a string of burglary and thefts across Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
Specialist officers from Greater Manchester Police's (GMP) Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit identified a pattern of offending, and detectives from the Serious Organised Crime Group were brought in to link the incidents and bring the gang to justice.
Detectives identified Kyle Camp as being involved. An image from one of the original defendant's phone from the first investigation into this criminal group, showed the car they had stolen, taken during what seemed to be a reconnaissance.
When he was arrested in October 2022, a download of his phone showed him communicating with Camp and Camp bragging about the cars he’d stolen.
Over a period of time, Camp and his acquaintances went on a ruthless spree of offending. Often stealing several cars in one night. Approaching several victims, they threatened them with violence if they didn’t hand over their car keys, often armed with knives or tools.
On December 28, 2021, a car was stolen from a drive on Boardale Avenue in Moston. Eleven days later, the car was recovered by police displaying false number plates.
From inside the car, police seized a snood from the driver’s door. When examined, a partial DNA match was found, linked to Camp.
On May 23, 2022, Camp broke into an address on Repton Avenue in Droylsden after drilling the lock on the back door.
A grey Volkswagen Golf and keys to a white Volkswagen Transporter were stolen from the address. A video from Camp’s phone, which was recovered on his arrest, showed the rear of the stolen Golf, with his phone connecting to the cell mast in the area of the offence at the time if was committed.
Hours later, at around 3am, Camp and his acquaintances were at their next targets address on Granby Street in Chadderton. The victim was awake, praying, when he was alerted to a sound in his house. In the kitchen he saw a man in a balaclava, looking through his window, accompanied by two men with knives.
The victim tried to stop them from entering, but they managed to steal the keys and escape with his car.
On June 16, 2022, in Uppermill, Oldham, a man was followed by a grey BMW.
As the victim parked on his drive he was approached by two men, Camp and Ryan Pearce, who was jailed in September 2023, after pleading guilty to the offence.
\the victim was violently assaulted, threatened with a knife, and pinned to the ground. The offenders stole the keys and left the scene.
The next day, officers recovered the grey BMW. It had false plates on but enquires revealed that the car was stolen nights earlier from Framingham Road.
On July 4, on Turner Street in Denton a woman arrived home when she was approached by a group of males who demanded the keys to her car.
As they left the scene they collided with another vehicle. Text messages revealed the males laughing about this incident saying ‘I got blocked in lol’ and ‘had to ram em.’
On July 6, on Carpenters Walk, Droyslden, Camp and his associates broke into a house to steal the keys of a BMW X4 M-Sport. In the early hours of that morning, Camp took a video of the car and posted it on social media.
At 11:30pm on July 12, 2023, Camp was arrested by police at a kebab shop on Stockport Road in Longsight. He was originally arrested for two burglaries, and from this, specialist detectives pieced together a timeline of events which placed Camp at each and every incident.
Over the space of seven weeks, Camp was involved in 15 different burglaries.
Despite answering ‘no comment’ to every question and originally pleading not guilty, Kyle Camp was jailed for 14 years and four months. He will serve a minimum of two thirds of his sentence in prison.
Detective Constable Chris Chinnery, from our Serious Organised Crime Group, said: “Kyle Camp’s crimes not only had significant financial implications for our victims, but most distressing, they had huge emotional impacts on victims who were either violently assaulted or threatened with weapons by Camp. One man was left feeling so unsafe that he felt he had no choice but to move to a different part of the country.
“This case included hours of meticulous searching through mobile phone evidence, tracing messages involving numerous people, across multiple phones and social media channels as deals were done and Camp bragged about his stolen cars, showing complete disregard the victims.”