Burglars who fished car keys through letterboxes before speeding away in luxury cars have been jailed for a total of 18 years.

Included in the haul were a BMW worth £15,000, a black Jaguar XF worth £35,000 and a Black Mercedes S350 worth £70,000. None have ever been recovered.

But police claims of a ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’-style £2 million ring which stole up to 75 cars were dropped after each of the nine men denied being involved in an overall conspiracy but admitted their individual crimes.

Fast and the foolish: Dozens more cars stolen across Kingston, Epsom, Weybridge, Cobham

Fast and the foolish: Drug dealing and violent crimes of Surrey car thieves

Police suspect the car keys were often stolen using wooden ‘fishing’ poles and the cars sold for profit.

Homes in Worcester Park, Chessington and Oxshott were targeted.

They were finally caught when the special unit set up to solve the crimes, named Operation Juniper, trapped them in a surveillance operation in November last year.

At Kingston Crown Court on Monday, prosecuting Charles Evans, said: “It was seen on a number of occasions the modus operandi was where people were either fishing for car keys left in a position of some vulnerability or people would enter premises to steal car keys they could see inside.

“These were thefts of vehicles, most of which have never been recovered because they have been sold on.”

Most of the nine who pleaded guilty had a long list of criminal convictions, many involving stealing cars.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Campbell said he “strongly suspected” the cars were being stolen to be sold on.

When prolific car thief Daniel Axeworthy was arrested on December 21 at his home in Acacia Grove, New Malden, he said: "That'll be me inside for Christmas won't it?

"Sometimes people have to do things to get by."

He was jailed for three years and three months after admitting stealing a £22,000 BMW and assaulting a man on a train on New Year’s Eve.

Oliver Pendry, 20, of no fixed address, was sentenced to two years and three months for handling a stolen Mercedes worth £70,000 and affray.

The court heard he told police on his arrest: "I haven't done anything for ages. I just move some cars around when they need it."

Harry Mackay, 21, of Queens Road, Thames Ditton, was jailed for 18 months and Annas Ibrahim, 17, of Victoria Road, Kingston, were both jailed for two years and nine months for stealing a Porsche 911.

Rico Persechino, 22, of Cotsford Avenue, New Malden, was jailed for two years eight months for three burglaries of two cars from homes.

His friends Craig Mills, 20, of Norbiton Common Road, Kingston, and Samuel Walton, 25, of Windrush, New Malden, were jailed for three years and two years eight months respectively for taking part in the same burglaries as Persechino.

Jordan Brogden, 20, of Green Lane, Worcester Park, was jailed for two years for a burglary of a black Jaguar worth £35,000 from a house in Chessington.

Conrad Hench, 17, of Portland Place, Kingston, was given a supervision order for having stolen car keys at his house and being caught selling drugs in Epsom in a separate undercover police operation.

Detective Inspector John Harnwell, of the South West Area Crime Squad, said: "Officers worked tirelessly during this investigation - this included analysing over 85,000 phone calls to bring the culprits to justice.

"As a result, nine career criminals have been taken off the streets and are facing a considerable amount of time behind bars."

The two officers who sifted through the phone records, Detective Sergeants Chris Grant and Bob Dolce, were commended by the judge for conducting the investigation, organising it, interrogating the telephone date and preparing the evidence.

Section 39 orders giving anonymity to the two 17-year-olds were dropped by the judge after a challenge by the Surrey Comet.