LEADERS of the criminal gang known as the Rathkeale Rovers are to be sentenced in England next month after they were found guilty of plotting to steal more than €70 million worth of Chinese artefacts and rhino horns from museums.
Four of the gang’s leaders were convicted of a number of offences at Birmingham Crown Court including thefts and burglaries at two museums in 2012.
John “Kerry” O’Brien Jr, (26), Richard “Kerry” O’Brien, (31), Michael Hegarty, (43), and Daniel “Turkey” O’Brien, (45), were found guilty after ten of their associates were convicted at previous criminal trials.
The exhibits that were stolen were initially valued at £17million but the court was told that those estimates had since increased to more than £55 million due to the “booming” Chinese auction market.
The convicted members of the Rathkeale Rovers, who have family connections in the west Limerick town, were also convicted of thefts from an East Sussex Auction house and of organising the disposal of the stolen artefacts.
Computers used to search the internet for information relating to the commission of the offences were found in Rathkeale.
Other members of the gang who were previously convicted are aged between 28 and 68 and are from the UK and Northern Ireland with a number being from the same Rathkeale family, including Travellers’ rights campaigner Richard Sheridan (47) who has an address in Cambridgeshire.
Sheridan was found in the company of another man who was known to regularly travel to Hong Kong and was found with £50,000 in the boot of a car.
The trial heard that detectives have yet to recover any of the 18 jade exhibits stolen from one museum in April 2012.
Derbyshire chief constable Mick Creedon, the UK national policing lead for organised crime, said: “This case starkly demonstrates the level of threat, the lengths criminal gangs will go to and the importance of law enforcement agencies sharing intelligence and working together.”
One of the men convicted has already been jailed and completed his sentence while the other 13 gang members will be sentenced in April.
