A GANG of car thieves who used an Edmonton garage to change the vehicles' identities have been jailed.

Ifzal Uddin, 27, of Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, and Iqbal Khan, 29, of Queens Road, Walthamstow, along with three others admitted handling stolen cars on November 29.

Uddin pleaded guilty to seven charges, while Khan admitted handling three stolen vehicles.

Others involved were Kamran Hussain, 24, Qurban Hussain, 31, both of East Ham, and Idris Wahid, 26, of Ilford. They all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handling stolen motor vehicles.

The Metropolitan Police Service's Stolen Vehicle Unit launched an investigation in 2007 after the theft of a number of vehicles around London, the Home Counties and Essex during burglaries from homes.

Between March 16 and May 15, 2007, 22 cars were stolen and taken to a garage on a trading estate in Edmonton where their identities were changed.

A second car ringing premises was found in Tilbury, Essex, where a further four cars were found.

The gang would either use the cars for themselves, sell them to unsuspecting members of the public or sell them to other fraudsters.

They pleaded guilty to making £400,000 in 18 months from the illegal business.

The police discovered that the gang had checked Cypriot car sale websites for cars that had been legitimately exported to Cyprus.

They would then use these number plates to give the stolen cars a new identity.

Uddin was sentenced to two years prison at Southwark Crown Court yesterday.

Khan was sentenced to 51 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work with a curfew imposed for three months.

Detective Sergeant Pete Ellis, from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command, said: "This was a long and complex investigation where our officers, who are experts in vehicle identification, had to examine a large number of vehicles to build up enough evidence to convict this network of criminals.

"These men had no regard for those innocent members of the public who were buying stolen vehicles from them. I would urge anyone thinking of buying a car to carry out due diligence checks and thorough research before handing over their hard earned cash to a stranger."

Confiscation proceedings are due to begin.