Is a Rightmove burglary gang stalking YOUR home? Families whose houses were raided by brazen Albanian crooks reveal the chilling ways their homes were violated and looted... and the hidden signs you can't ignore
The sanctity of Jean Howell-Higgins’ home was violated on a December day in 2024.
Heading out to pick up a prescription and for lunch with friends, she left her 77-year-old husband, who is wheelchair-bound and suffers from multiple sclerosis, in his bed.
Returning later, she immediately realised something wasn’t right.
‘I came back at about 5.45pm and the house was in darkness,’ said Mrs Howell-Higgins, a 59-year-old mother of two, who also cares for the couple’s autistic daughter.
‘The dogs were at the front door which was unusual, because I always leave them in the kitchen ... and then I saw the back door was open.’
A quick tour of the property revealed that while she was out and her husband was sleeping, thieves had broken into their Cheshire property.
Having disabled the security lights, they had gained access to the first floor using a ladder, and rifled through their possessions, stealing jewellery, including one hand-made pair of earrings given to Jean for her 21st birthday.
‘They’re irreplaceable,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘We were lucky more wasn’t taken. I think either I disturbed them when I came home or James coughed and that spooked them and they fled.’
Following the raids the gang would gleefully discuss what they had done, including Lleshi posing with wads of money
Knowing her husband was in the house when it happened was ‘terrible’, she says.
‘They must have seen the ramps outside so knew there was someone disabled living here. It’s horrible, it took us weeks to feel safe in our own home.’
Seventy five miles away in Nottinghamshire and it’s a feeling shared by a 77-year-old widow who had gone through a very similar experience a month previously.
The woman, who is still so shaken by what happened that she asked not to be named, was targeted after leaving her home with her dying husband for the first time in months.
Suffering from leukaemia, he was in between chemotherapy treatments when the pair headed out for the evening in November 2024.
They returned to find their home had been ransacked. Jewellery including pendants, rings, gold chains and commemorative coins had been taken.
‘They must have been watching the place,’ she said. ‘We have a burglar alarm and cameras at the front and the side but they broke in from the back upstairs, having come over a field.
The gang rifled through Jean and James' possessions, stealing jewellery, including one hand-made pair of earrings given to Jean for her 21st birthday
‘It’s not the jewellery itself, it’s all the memories that go with them. It’s my 21st birthday present, my ruby wedding anniversary stuff. They are not just taking possessions, they are taking memories.
‘These things can never be replaced. My husband has now died and so many of the things he gave me have now gone.’
And she added: ‘I am still very afraid. I feel very vulnerable. But they just don’t care anything about the people they are robbing.’
No kidding. Within minutes of leaving the house, the men responsible shared images of some of the stolen jewellery on a weighing scale, proudly observing: ‘We’ve added another four grams.’
There are dozens of other, similar, stories of loss and suffering – from the terrified mum who heard the burglars upstairs and barricaded her and her son into a room below, to the four-year-old child who to this day still talks about ‘baddies coming through the window’.
And then there’s the multi-millionaire so fed up by the break-in at his house and the feeling that he is no longer safe in this country that he is selling up to move abroad.
A large numbers of watches were among the gang's haul
The full irony of that decision was laid bare earlier this week at Chester Crown Court when the details of those behind this terrifying crime spree emerged.
Because five of the six-strong gang were Albanian men – three of whom were in this country illegally.
Or to put in other words, in comes a gang of foreign criminals and out goes a successful British businessman.
Also shocking was the forensic way in which they’d researched and targeted their victims’ homes.
In many cases they used Google Maps to identify properties in affluent neighbourhoods or those backing onto open fields or woodland for easy access. They’d then scour the internet for the particulars of houses for sale or recently sold – studying floorplans to get an idea of the home’s layout. The property website Rightmove was a favoured research tool.
It’s a strategy that could strike fear into the hearts of anyone who is trying to sell their house, has bought one in the past – or who has neighbours who are in the process of selling theirs.
As senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Dave Worthington, of Cheshire Police, told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s quite shrewd.’
The gang, having arrived in Britain supposedly to make a better life for themselves, instead set about ruining the lives of scores of hard-working men and women who were born, raised and paid taxes here. In total, it is believed the burglars stole jewellery and designer goods worth up to £3million in a string of 44 raids.
In one break-in alone they made off with £238,000-worth of items, in another, 32 collectable watches.
Yet not all of the gang members were here illegally. The final gang member was a 34-year-old Birmingham born medical student, and mother of two, by the name of Jade Tubb.
She’d joined the gang after starting a relationship with Endrit Nikolli, who is six years her junior.
Sorting out hire cars in return for cash and stolen designer handbags, somehow Tubb convinced herself there was something romantic about dating a burglar.
‘To my Clyde from Bonnie,’ the ‘besotted’ Tubb wrote in an anniversary card to her boyfriend, comparing themselves to the notorious 1930s American robbers.
At the time of her arrest, she had handbags in her possession that had been stolen in two burglaries.
The final gang member was a 34-year-old Birmingham born medical student, and mother of two, by the name of Jade Tubb
‘To my Clyde from Bonnie,’ Tubb wrote in an anniversary card to her boyfriend, Endrit Nikolli, comparing themselves to the notorious 1930s American robbers
While Tubb somehow avoided jail when she appeared at Chester Crown Court this week, the other gang members did not.
Her boyfriend Nikolli, 27, George Pepa, 31 and Krisjian Dedndreaj, 28, all of Walsall, Kristian Gropcaj, 30, of Birmingham and Sidorjan Lleshi, 26, of Sheffield all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to possess criminal property.
Nikolli will be sentenced later this month, while his four co-conspirators were jailed for a total of almost 40 years.
Tubb, meanwhile, admitted conspiracy to possess criminal property and was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.
Sentencing them, Judge Patrick Thompson blasted the gang for showing ‘no mercy’ to their victims.
‘You have taken their sense of security in their own homes and left them feeling vulnerable and uneasy,’ he told them.
Sadly, the phenomenon of gangs travelling from abroad to this country to burgle houses has become all too common in recent years.
And for certain sections of Albanian society, Britain holds a particular appeal.
Nationals from the Eastern European country consistently constitute the highest percentage of foreigners in UK jails – making up around 9 per cent of all overseas criminals behind bars.
Indeed, new figures show that in the first three months of this year Albanian criminals were being jailed at a rate of one every two days.
Drug offences and burglaries account for many of the sentences, with the rise blamed on the surge in small boat arrivals in 2022 when a record 12,551 Albanians arrived in the UK.
National Crime Agency chiefs said at the time that a ‘significant number’ of the Albanians had entered illegally to work in the ‘grey’ market or for organised criminals.
Of the burglary gang, Lleshi, Pepa and Dedndreaj were all illegal immigrants. Pepa worked as a painter and Dedndreaj as a labourer.
But, aided by Nikolli and Gropcaj, a father-of-two, who’d obtained British citizenship and was working as a nightclub bouncer before the crime spree, their main efforts were reserved for their criminal activities.
The vast majority of the raids took place over three months at the end of 2024 and the start of 2025. The gang was particularly busy in the run up to Christmas.
First, they scoured the country to identify properties likely to yield the richest pickings and parking locations worked out in advance.
Two of the gang pose near the scene of one of their burglaries
Then, using hire cars often arranged by Tubb, the five men would set off from their homes in the Midlands, targeting properties in Derbyshire, Cheshire, Cleveland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Mercia.
Raids would take place round the clock, mainly in the dark, with multiple houses hit each week.
Using sledgehammers and power tools, they would force their way into the homes, often entering by the first floor to avoid triggering burglar alarms covering the downstairs.
In their search for valuables rooms would be ransacked. Among items taken were a £20,000 white gold ring with three carat diamonds, a £7,000 necklace, a £5,000 Omega watch, a £12,500 cutlery set, Luis Vuitton and Mulberry handbags, cufflinks engraved with the words ‘father of the bride’ and war medals.
Following the raids the gang would gleefully discuss what they had done.
After targeting a property in Prestbury from which they stole jewellery worth in the region of £10,000, Lleshi was contacted by Gropcaj who asked: ‘Could you get anything... which one did you do?’. In response, Lleshi sent a map link and photos of jewellery, writing: ‘S/he was inside, fxxc what a house it was’.
On another occasion Gropcaj messaged Lleshi and asked if he fancied a coffee.
Lleshi replied: ‘No mate, I want to steal ... I want to break into things.’
More evidence of their greed and gloating wasn’t hard to find. Photographs showed them posing with giant wads of cash and brandishing stolen watches.
Meanwhile, CCTV from one of the raids captured two of the masked burglars stumbling into the back garden of a house in Cheshire carrying a safe.
Visibly struggling with its weight, they shuffled across a patio and onto the lawn before raising the safe to shoulder level to push it over a wooden fence.
Detective Chief Inspector Dave Worthington, said: ‘They did not care what they left behind in terms of damage, which had traumatic consequences for the victims.
‘These were people who have worked hard to buy their home and then find that home has been violated.
‘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.’
Police finally trapped the raiders following a ten-month investigation after detectives in Cheshire became aware of a series of burglaries carried out using similar tactics.
Other forces reported similar break-ins in their areas, with automatic numberplate 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. DNA evidence and footprints matching the defendants’ Primark trainers also linked them to the scene.
Last July, officers swooped in coordinated raids across the Midlands.
But while more than 500 items were recovered most of their haul had been sold on or melted down.
Lleshi was jailed for ten years and nine months, Gropcaj was imprisoned for ten years, while Dedndreaj and Pepa were both given nine-year terms.
Sentencing Tubb, the judge told her she should ‘hang her head in shame’ for getting involved with the gang and that he would inform 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, adding: ‘You may well have thrown away your medical career’
Last night her family refused to comment on her conviction.
Lleshi, Pepa and Dedndreaj will be deported back to Albania after serving their sentences.
Sources in Albania told the Daily Mail that none of the men have criminal records in their homeland, with some apparently leading affluent lifestyles in their native country.
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.’
Quite why they felt it necessary to travel to Britain to inflict misery on innocent homeowners is unclear. But that the effects of their actions resonate to this day, there can be no doubt.
In a statement provided for the sentencing hearing, the victim forced to barricade herself into her lounge explained how she would ‘never forget’ hearing the burglars upstairs.
‘That moment was terrifying,’ said the woman from Macclesfield, Cheshire. ‘We didn’t know if they were armed, how many people there were, or whether they would come downstairs.
‘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. I constantly worry about whether we are safe, whether someone is watching us, and whether something like this could happen again.’
And she added: ‘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.’
