Police swooped on two homes and a used-car dealership in a probe into the theft of luxury cars which are then shipped to Japan.

Officers simultaneously raided all three addresses in the Allerton area of Bradford yesterday in a pre-planned operation designed to catch five key suspects off-guard.

Four men and a woman were arrested when search warrants were executed at homes in Wilmer Drive and Duckworth Lane during Operation Tartare.

Autopoint Ltd, in Allerton Road, was also raided. A Honda Integra Type R, a Subaru Impreza and a US-imported Ford Mustang along with 14 other cars parked on the forecourt were found.

Restraint Orders were placed on all the vehicles using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, temporarily preventing the business from trading.

Detectives believe a gang is responsible for planning a series of ‘Hanoi-style’ burglaries in Bradford and across West Yorkshire in which car keys are stolen from the owners’ homes. Vehicles such as Bentleys, BMWs and Mercedes are believed to have been targeted.

Cars with a combined value of at least £500,000 have been identified in connection with the conspiracy, including 20 other vehicles identified in recent months. They include a Porsche 911, valued at £70,000, and a Bentley Continental GT, valued at £80,000. Ten of those cars have been recovered so far.

Police say the stolen cars have been given doctored documentation and false registration plates.

They have then been shipped to Japan where an agent has sold them as new, imported cars to unsuspecting consumers.

Other stolen vehicles have been sold in Bradford and to customers elsewhere in the UK via the internet.

Yesterday’s raids were the culmination of a 14-month investigation started by detectives in Kirklees working alongside Stoke-on-Trent Trading Standards.

It was triggered by a complaint about the purchase of a car with clocked mileage in Stoke and the seizure in Bradford of a car with false plates in a shipping container.

Detective Inspector Phil Benson, of Kirklees CID, said: “The focus of the operation is not just to seize these vehicles but to confiscate assets accrued through these burglaries.”

He warned criminals involved in this type of crime that they would be targeted.

“Although you can’t see a visible operation, there are force-wide operations going on to stop people from doing this sort of thing,” he said.