Police smash gang of car thieves suspected of nicking Lamborghini Gallardo that turned up in an Essex car showroom

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He was offering a reward of more than £8,500 for the return of the vehicle because it had belonged to his late wife.

Police revealed yesterday the thieves had even discussed claiming the reward before selling it on.

The high-powered vehicle is thought to have ended up in the UK after passing through an intermediary in Germany.

There is no suggestion the unnamed dealers in Britain who ended up with the car had any idea it had been stolen.

Civil Guard officers went public with their operation - which was coordinated with police in other countries including Britain and Germany - as they announced the arrest of 11 people.

The two gang leaders are thought to have been held in Malaga, although at least one normally lived in the Majorcan capital Palma where the investigation - codenamed Operation Prunaria-Novurania - was led.

Several cars, motorbikes and jet skis have been seized.

Officers revealed the gang stole to order and used dodgy mechanics who could modify the vehicles as well as accomplices who falsified the car documents.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Majorca said: “On some occasions they went to car pounds and presented fake court orders so they could take them away without arousing suspicion.

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“They’d then sell the vehicles on to front companies forming part of the criminal organisation.

“Another of their modus operandi was to to target vehicles they planned to steal, generally luxury cars, and then put the owners under surveillance and work out their security arrangements.

“One of the high-end vehicles we recovered was stolen in Italy which shows how wide their area of operations was.

“The jet skis they stole were subsequently transported to Morocco and used by other gangs to smuggle cannabis across to southern Spain.”