A ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ couple were part of an Albanian burglary gang who used Rightmove to study floorplans of luxury houses before ransacking them.
The ‘besotted’ pair belonged to a ‘callous’ six-strong group that targeted upmarket properties across the UK, stealing jewellery and designer goods worth up to £3million.
Gaining entry via first floor windows, in some cases they brazenly plundered bedrooms while terrified homeowners barricaded themselves downstairs.
One of the gang – Endrit Nikolli – started a relationship with a British woman, second year medical student Jade Tubb, who compared herself and her lover to the notorious US outlaws.
Chilling CCTV footage showed the gang, which included three illegal immigrants, escaping from houses with bags of loot over their shoulders, or struggling to carry heavy safes crammed with valuables.
Chester Crown Court heard the gang targeted properties for their size – and the likely wealth of owners – proximity to open countryside and woodland, and even availability of parking for an easy getaway.
Stella Hayden, prosecuting, said: ‘These defendants were part of a criminal gang which scoured the country to identify properties likely to yield the richest pickings.’
Police finally trapped the raiders following a huge ten-month investigation – and recovered pictures showing them gloating over giant wads of cash and brandishing stolen watches.
Other images released by Cheshire Police show scales topped with gold jewellery from their haul.
Sentencing four of the gang, Judge Patrick Thompson said: ‘Clearly the houses were targeted in that they may yield high value items.
‘The burglaries took place under the cover of darkness, with occupants present.
‘Many properties suffered considerable damage and ransacking.’
The judge told how the effect of the crimes on victims ‘cannot be underestimated’, citing how ‘children were frightened to return to their bedrooms’ – and said the burglars had ‘shaken the foundations of safety and security’ of those they targeted.
Judge Thompson said the gang had used equipment including sledgehammers and power tools to break in to houses, targeting ‘jewellery, safes, designer goods and watches’.
The group would travel ‘hundreds of miles’, sometimes using hire cars ‘in an attempt to cover (their) tracks’, the judge said.
The men targeted wealthy householders during a string of 44 burglaries, mainly carried out late at night.
One burglary happened when a woman went out to fetch medication for her husband, who has Multiple Sclerosis and was in the house asleep.
Another raid happened when the occupant was in a hospital accident and emergency unit.
The most lucrative burglary saw £238,000 of items taken, while 32 designer watches were plundered from another address.
Officers recovered items including 13 designer handbags and 14 luxury watches worth almost £17,000, however much of the stolen jewellery had long since been melted down and sold.
Endrit Nikolli, 27, George Pepa, 31, Krisjian Dedndreaj, 28, of Walsall, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to possess criminal property.
Fellow gang members Kristian Gropcaj, 30, of Birmingham, and Sidorjan Lleshi, 26, of Sheffield, also pleaded guilty to the same two offences.
Tubb, 33, a mother-of-two and student doctor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess criminal property. She claimed she was charmed and became drawn into the gang after becoming besotted by Nikolli during their eight-month affair.
Her role was hiring cars used to ferry the gang to their targets, which were usually within easy reach of the M1 or M6.
At the time of her arrest, she had handbags stolen from two of the burglaries in her possession.
Police discovered an anniversary card which she had sent to Nikolli, with the message ‘to my Clyde from Bonnie’.
Ms Hayden said the message was ‘evidence (to) her knowing involvement in Endrit Nikolli’s criminality’.
Other photos showed two gang members, wearing hoods, hats and masks to cover their faces, posing with a stolen safe and a giant sledgehammer.
After ransacking a house in Cheshire, on November 4, 2024, stealing items including a £6,800 Pear Mikimoto watch, Lleshi sent Gropcaj a message saying: ‘F***, what a house it was’.
At another house, where the male homeowner had gone out for the first time since recovering from chemotherapy, rings and commemorative coins were stolen.
Afterwards, Lleshi was again in touch with Gropcaj bragging about his ill-gotten loot, this time sending a picture of jewellery on a set of scales and declaring: ‘We’ve added another four grammes’.
The five Albanians had emigrated to the UK – three arriving illegally – despite some apparently leading affluent lifestyles in their native country.
Social media shots have emerged of them enjoying a party lifestyle in Albania.
One member posted images of sightseeing trips to Monte Carlo, Paris and Milan while another showed off standing beside a silver Mercedes and boasting: ‘My car.’
In one exchange Gropcaj posted ‘Yes life is terrible’ to which Pepa responded: ‘The free jam has gone viral – I’m so happy.’
The police investigation began in October 2024 when detectives in Cheshire became aware of a series of burglaries carried out using similar tactics.
On each occasion the offenders would typically gain entry by using ladders to access first-floor windows and balconies without setting off burglar alarms.
Once inside they would ransack the properties, stealing jewellery, designer handbags, watches and cash.
On two occasions they removed safes which they carried into fields to open.
Judge Thompson read out a victim impact statement by Jean Howell-Higgins, whose home in Cheshire was burgled in December 2024 while she was fetching a prescription for her sick husband, who has multiple sclerosis. Her husband was at home asleep at the time.
She said: ‘After the burglary, I didn’t sleep properly for several days. These people entered while I was waiting to collect a doctor’s prescription for my husband. The house is adapted – there are ramps outside making it obvious that an older, disabled person lives in the property.
‘Items were taken from my autistic daughter’s bedroom. It took weeks to persuade her it was safe to be in the house.’
Mrs Howell-Higgins told how she believed the gang waited until the front of the house was in darkness and her car was not on the drive before they struck.
‘Clearly these people had been watching our home, waiting for such an opportunity, which was a very nasty feeling,’ she added.
Other victims told how they no longer felt safe in their own homes, were concerned about sudden noises, and felt pain and sadness at the loss of family heirlooms or items of sentimental value.
The gang targeted the Golden Triangle of Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Prestbury where many Premier League stars live, although no players were victims.
One victim from Macclesfield, Cheshire, described her horror at realising there were intruders upstairs and barricaded herself in the lounge while waiting for police to attend.
In a statement provided for the sentencing hearing, she explained how she was downstairs with her 21-year-old son – the only other person in the property – when they heard ‘noises’ coming from the first floor.
‘That moment was terrifying,’ she said.
‘The realisation that strangers had broken into our house while we were inside – just a floor away – was something I will never forget.
‘We didn’t know if they were armed, how many people there were, or whether they would come downstairs, meaning we were forced to barricade ourselves in the lounge.
‘We felt completely exposed and helpless in our own home, a place that should feel safe and secure, but that has now been taken from us.’
The gang stole watches and jewellery, much of which had great sentimental value or were ‘family heirlooms and deeply personal keepsakes’.
‘Their loss is heartbreaking and each member of the family has been affected.
‘While I am grateful that neither my son nor I were physically harmed, the emotional impact of this incident has been significant.
‘I constantly worry about whether we are safe, whether someone is watching us, and whether something like this could happen again.
‘Even now, I still check and recheck locks, jump at unfamiliar noises, and find it difficult to relax in the place that once gave me comfort and peace.
‘The effects of this crime go far beyond the physical loss of property. It has shaken the foundation of safety and security in our family.’
Other forces reported similar break-ins in their areas, with Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology used to identify vehicles which were present at all the incidents and cell-site technology recording where their mobile phones had been active.
Police were alerted when Nikolli’s DNA was linked to a burglary in Staffordshire.
But in a joint operation across several forces, detectives decided not to arrest him for that single offence but instead track his movements and round up the entire gang.
Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Dave Worthington, of Cheshire Police, said the group used property websites to help them plan raids.
‘They used Google and Rightmove to help select targets as Rightmove can include floor plans of properties, which is quite shrewd,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘They did not care what they left behind in terms of damage, which had traumatic consequences for the victims.
‘Many of the items were of great sentimental value and may never be seen again.
‘These were people who have worked hard to buy their home and then find that home has been violated.
‘Rooms were ransacked and sometimes even sheets were taken to wrap up the stolen goods.
‘The targets were people’s homes which should have been their safe space in which they were entitled to feel secure.
‘They revelled in what they had done, taking videos on their phones of their hauls before they even got back to their base in the West Midlands.’
Forensic evidence included blood left at the scene of at least one of the raids, while there were footprints from gang members’ Primark trainers.
A total of 44 homes were targeted by the gang, across the country from Herefordshire to Middlesbrough. The bulk of the crime spree happened between December 2024 and March 2025.
Two burglaries were carried out on the same evening in December 2024 by different gang members over 100 miles apart – one in Middlesbrough and one in north Derbyshire.
The greatest concentrations of burglaries were in the North West, West and East Midlands, close to where the criminals were based.
Burglary locations included: Derbyshire (9), Cheshire (8), Staffordshire (7), Nottinghamshire (5), Birmingham/West Midlands (3), Worcestershire (3), Hereford (2), Leicestershire (2) Middlesbrough (2), Warwickshire (2), Shropshire (1)
Members of the gang would regularly meet at a coffee shop in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham.
They were detained during raids carried out on July 2 last year at addresses in Walsall, Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham.
Several mobile phones were also recovered during the warrants, and through analysis officers recovered hundreds of images of the stolen items, along with messages which contained links to Google Maps which correlated with the scene of the burglaries.
Officers estimate the total value of the items stolen was in excess of £3million.
But while over 500 items were recovered from the defendants’ addresses – comprising designer watches, handbags, jewellery, footwear and documents – the vast majority have been sold on.
Lleshi was jailed for 10 years and nine months, Gropcaj was imprisoned for 10 years, while Dedndreaj and Pepa were both given nine-year terms. The court heard Pepa’s involvement was limited to five of the burglaries.
Tubb, however, narrowly escaped a prison term after the judge handed her a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.
He told her she should ‘hang her head in shame’ for getting involved with the gang and that he would be informing the General Medical Council about her conviction.
It would be up to them to discern whether she was a ‘fit and proper person to practise medicine,’ the judge said.
‘You may well have thrown away your medical career’.
The judge heard Gropcaj had no previous convictions and was a father-of-two whose youngest child had been born while he was in prison on remand. He had obtained British citizenship and was working as a nightclub bouncer before the crime spree.
Lleshi, Pepa and Dedndreaj were all illegal immigrants, with Pepa working as a painter and Dedndreaj as a labourer. They will be deported back to Albania after serving their sentences.
Nikolli will be sentenced later this month.
Proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act will begin in the summer to recover the gang’s ill-gotten gains.
