Black, Young and Ruthless - the gang behind the high speed police chases

A gang of youths are behind Adelaide’s spate of high speed car chases in stolen luxury vehicles, it can be revealed.

A gang of youths is behind Adelaide’s year-long spate of luxury vehicle thefts and wild police chases that have been causing mayhem on the roads, it can be revealed.

The gang – which has dubbed itself Black, Young and Ruthless – is responsible for dozens of incidents that have traumatised homeowners and endangered the lives of motorists.

The indigenous gang, whose members are aged between 12 and 15 and include many in state care or under guardianship orders, varies in size from just a handful to up to 15 at times depending on how many are in custody at the Adelaide Youth Training Centre, in Cavan.

Its members specifically target high-end cars – including BMWs, Mercedes, Bentleys and a Lamborghini – and then “bait’’ police patrols into dangerous high-speed chases, mostly at night.

They have also been responsible for hundreds of other crimes such as property damage, serious criminal trespass, assault, shop theft, possessing cannabis, robbery carrying offensive weapons, aggravated affray, stealing petrol and breaches of bail conditions.

The gang members – who film their high-speed exploits and post the videos on their Instagram accounts – have been targeting houses in wealthy suburbs, often after following the owners of luxury vehicles home to ascertain where they live.

A 2018 Bentley Bentayga SUV Wagon stolen from St Peters. Picture: SA Police

Their trademark method of stealing the vehicles is for the smallest child to enter the house through a rear “doggie door’’ or an open window, locate the transponder key for the vehicle and then steal it – often without the owner realising until the car drives away.

In many of the incidents, when police stop the stolen cars and detain gang members, they have been unable to take any action against many of them because of their ages – despite the fact some of the youths have been arrested dozens of times for committing a wide range of offences and breaching bail conditions that prohibit them from associating with each other.

While police have charged some of the youths individually with dozens of offences arising from multiple incidents, on each occasion the charges against them are later dropped in the Youth Court because of the doli incapax principle – that they are deemed incapable of forming the intent to commit a crime.

Teenagers arrested over high-end luxury car thefts as one vehicle is recovered at Clearview. Picture 7 NEWS

In one case, a gang member, aged 12, who lives in a Department of Child Protection care house in a northern suburb, has had almost 300 interactions with police and is currently before court on charges including breach of bail, illegal use of a motor vehicle, aggravated theft and aggravated robbery.

Astonishingly, he is also a suspect for a further 160 offences that include stealing petrol, assault, being unlawfully on premises, theft and carrying an offensive weapon.

Investigations into the gang are being conducted by police attached to Operation Mandrake, which was established in 2003 to investigate a group of hardcore Aboriginal offenders – the so-called Gang of 49.

When asked to comment on the activities of the youths by the Sunday Mail, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens would not reveal the number of youths involved, other than to say “it is relatively fluid’’ and the nature of their offending “had morphed over time’’.

“Whilst we have seen changes in their offending, there have been some constants such as offences of violence, theft, robberies, car theft and high risk driving behaviours in stolen cars,’’ he said.

“One of the crimes we are now responding to is serious criminal trespasses where the primary objective is to take the car keys and take high-value cars. It is one of the things that Mandrake is focusing on.’’

Mr Stevens said while the trauma for victims whose homes were subject to an aggravated serious criminal trespass was significant, the subsequent behaviour of those involved was extreme and posed a significant risk.

“The sense of having your privacy violated, we can’t ignore that, and the behaviour we see in the vehicles they steal is incredibly high risk,” he said. “It puts police officers at risk, it puts other members of the community at risk and other road users, but it also puts these young people at risk.

“Whilst we denounce their behaviours and do everything we can to prevent it, we can’t forget we are talking about young people who are making very bad decisions. I don’t think anyone wants to see them suffer fatal consequences as a result of those decisions.’’

He said the risks associated with such driving behaviour in high-powered vehicles was significant when “some of these people are not old enough to have driver’s licences and they are driving incredibly dangerously.’’

Teenagers arrested over high-end luxury car thefts as one vehicle is recovered at Clearview. Picture: 7 NEWS

Teenagers arrested over high-end luxury car thefts as one vehicle is recovered at Clearview. Picture 7 NEWS

“If their goal is to bait police and get police into a pursuit, then we need to be thinking about how we respond to that because if our response drives them to be even more dangerous then we need to be managing that as safely as possible,’’ Mr Stevens said.

Operation Mandrake officers are using a number of strategies to control the youths, including identifying those most at risk of engaging in this type of offending, using up-to-date intelligence on their activities, the type of vehicles they are targeting and where from.

And both Operation Mandrake officers and senior police are engaging with the families of offenders and community leaders who are in turn attempting to dissuade the youths from becoming involved in this type of high risk offending.

“It is a really important part of our approach, it is not just about chasing young offenders,’’ Mr Stevens said.

“It is something we are focusing on in terms of preventing, but am not sure what the answer is to eradicating this type of behaviour and I don’t think we are unique as a jurisdiction in dealing with this type of crime.’’

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens poses in front of Police Car lights Monday December ,13,2021.Picture Mark Brake

Age old problem, says Stevens

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has warned that if the age of criminal responsibility is increased in South Australia, an alternative framework for dealing with repeat youth offenders and those who commit serious crimes will need to be introduced.

At present, police deal with such youths under the Young Offenders Act but if the age of criminal responsibility is raised from 10 to 14 as proposed under a Bill now before state parliament, police will be powerless to take action against them if they are caught committing a crime.

In a rare move, Mr Stevens has broken protocol to comment on the legislation before parliament because of its significance to community safety and the potential impact on police resources.

He said he had provided advice on the likely ramifications of the legislation to the former Liberal government, to current Attorney-General Kyam Maher and Police Minister Joe Szakacs and outlined SAPOL’s position.

Attorney-General Kyam Maher. Picture: David Mariuz

“Any decision on the age of criminal responsibility is a matter for government, but my expectation is any changes would be based on a proper assessment of all of the circumstances, both weighing up the benefits to young people and ensuring there is no compromise to public safety,’’ Mr Stevens said.

“It is my strong view that if there is a change, then we need to be confident that we have a framework in place that protects the interests of young people who offend, provides the right protections for victims of crime and where necessary, children who fall into the category of serious recidivist offenders are prevented from causing harm within the community.

“At present, we have the ability to intervene, to hold family conferences and for the vast majority of children that level of intervention is sufficient to prevent them from coming into contact with the criminal justice system again.’’

Mr Stevens said if the age was raised to 14, his expectation was there would “be an alternative process’’ for managing the small number of children this intervention is unsuccessful and for serious recidivist offenders.

“And if there is a change, then properly defining the role of police, ensuring that police have the ability to deal with those children who commit offences in accordance with the new framework that does not impact on police resources and ensures those children are properly accommodated will need to occur,’’ he said.

The proposed legislation has already sparked concern among rank-and-file police and the SA Police Association with both expressing fears they may end up as “de facto babysitters’’ for youths detained after hours under any new regime if Department for Child Protection staff or carers are not available.

Mr Stevens said police had an obligation to ensure community safety and, as such, he expected consideration of any change in current arrangements to include “how we minimise the impact on policing resources’’

“That is so we are not drawn into a scenario where it takes police away from the ability to be available to respond to other calls for assistance, beyond what we currently do now for young offenders,’’ he said.

Mr Stevens would not speculate on how young offenders would react to raising the threshold for any charges against them or how this may influence their behaviour.

“We don’t have a position on what the age of criminal responsibility should be, we are not agitating for change, but if there is a change these are the things that need to be considered,’’ he said.

“On the face of it, and I don’t think anybody would disagree that young people should not be held in custody in most cases, we need to know we have an ability to deal with all young offenders appropriately.’’

The remains of a BMW stolen from Unley and found in Woodville West. Picture: Matt Loxton

Long list of offences

A lengthy police chase involving a stolen BMW reached speeds of up to 140km/h resulted in three youths, one aged 12 years and two aged 13 years, being arrested.

Each child told police they were a member of a youth gang calling themselves Black, Young and Ruthless.

The trio were charged with a raft of offences including breach of bail – they were banned from associating with each other because of prior offending – driving unlicensed, driving without due care and dangerous driving to engage in a police pursuit.

However, most charges were withdrawn in the Youth Court because of the doli incapax presumption and the remainder dealt with in family conferences. The youngest gang member, who lives in a Department of Child Protection care house in a northern suburb, has had almost 300 interactions with police and is currently before court on five charges including breach of bail, illegal use of a motor vehicle, aggravated theft and aggravated robbery.

The youth has been arrested by police 34 times and reported another 15 times. On each of the 33 occasions he has been before court all charges have been withdrawn with less than half referred to family conferencing.

He is also a suspect for a further 160 offences that include stealing petrol, assault, being unlawfully on premises, theft and carrying an offensive weapon.

The two 13-year-old youths have more than 100 previous interactions with police between them including breach of bail, serious criminal trespass, shop theft, assault and illegal interference with a vehicle, and illegal use of a vehicle.