More than 70 people were arrested after Scotland Yard set up a second-hand clothing shop trading in stolen goods to target thieves and burglars.
Detectives opened the store in a former community centre and offered cash for clothes and what a judge described as “less legitimate items” as a part of a sting operation.
The shop, in Erith, south-east London, was called “Ward’s Cash 4 Clothes” and staffed with two undercover detectives known as Dan and Charlie. It even had its own Facebook page.
Deals with customers for goods ranging from stolen passports, laptops, jewellery and watches to a shotgun were recorded by hidden equipment.
In the latest in a series of convictions following the operation, two brothers and their father were jailed for offences including possession of a 1924 shotgun, handling stolen goods and burglary.
Mark Pearce, 31, of Erith, and his brother Matthew, 29, of Thamesmead, were each jailed for six years and three months after admitting 58 offences including possession of a shotgun, fraud, burglary and ID crimes.
Their father James Pearce, 58, also of Erith, was sentenced to three years and eight months imprisonment after admitting 13 offences.
Sentencing at Inner London crown court, Judge Nic Madge said the officers “let it be known that besides buying second-hand clothes, they would also buy less legitimate items”.
He added: “The whole purpose of the shop was in fact to buy stolen goods or other illicit material and to apprehend those who were selling them.” The judge told the three men: “All three of you were prolific, professional offenders. None of you had legitimate paid employment.
“You were literally living from the proceeds of crime. There has been no expression of remorse from any of you. In those circumstances, lengthy sentences are inevitable.”
Lawyers for the Pearce family had argued the police operation encouraged people to commit crime and many of the offences would not have occurred if the shop had not been set up.
The three were among 40 men and a woman arrested in mass raids at addresses in Bexley, Lewisham, Greenwich and Bromley in March.
A further 31 people were also arrested as a result of the initiative, codenamed Operation Belmont. So far 50 people have been convicted, with sentences totalling more than 100 years.
Run by Bexley police and Scotland Yard’s Serious and Organised Crime Command, the operation tackled criminal networks suspected of being involved in burglary, theft, fraud, motor vehicle crime, drug dealing, money laundering and violent crime.
Scotland Yard said it would not comment on undercover activities.
