Operation Turbo has recovered 91 cars worth �1m

The trio - Brian Siner, Damon Franey and Anthony Bushell - were the last of 30 people to be sentenced as a result of Operation Turbo.

The 16-month investigation involved undercover officers from Merseyside Police setting up a bogus business in the Kensington of the city, called Clearance Car Corner, secretly equipped with video and audio equipment.

As a result of the operation 91 stolen cars, worth more than �1m, and �300,000 worth of drugs, were recovered and jail sentences ranging from five-and-a-half years to six months, have followed.

On Monday, Siner, 19, of Clint Way, Kensington, admitted handling three stolen cars and possessing crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years detention.

Bushell, 18, of Gladstone Road, Kensington, was sentenced to nine months after admitting handling four cars and stealing another.

Tunnel crash

Franey, also 18, of Jubilee Drive, Kensington, was ordered to carry out 200 hours community punishment.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he had been badly affected by the death of his 14-year-old brother Darren Franey in a stolen car on 2 March last year in the Wallasey Tunnel following a police chase.

Scott Veach, 14, also died in the crash.

Sentencing Franey, Judge Gerald Clifton told him he took the loss of his brother into account but "he could not go on getting the benefit of that in terms of sentencing."

Two of Franey's brothers, Liam and Gavin, have already been jailed for five-and-a-half years and four-and-a-half years respectively, as a result of Operation Turbo.

Bogus business

Paul Maguire, 20, is currently serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence for stealing the car in which the boys died.

Maguire, from Toxteth, was also caught as a result of the operation.

Andrew Sinker, prosecuting Siner, Franey and Bushell, told the court the investigation involved stolen high-value vehicles.

They were mainly taken in hook-and-cane burglaries - so-called because the thieves will pass a cane through their victims' letterboxes and hook keys which have been left in hallways, before stealing the car.