The life of infamous gangster with bulletproof home in leafy Midland suburb

Drugs kingpin Thomas Kavanagh, 57, from Tamworth, is already serving 21 years over a £30m drug smuggling racket

by · Birmingham Live

An infamous gangster who cooked up a stranger-than-fiction bid to cut his jail sentence lived in a bulletproof house in a leafy Midland suburb. Mobster Thomas "Bomber" Kavanagh enjoyed a luxury lifestyle behind the fortified gates of his mansion on a plush row of rural homes at Mile Oak, just outside Tamworth.

He was the "main man in the UK" for Ireland's feared Kinahan gang and was linked to crimes stretching across Europe. The good times came crashing down when Kavanagh was jailed for 21 years for orchestrating a £30 million drug smuggling racket two years ago. Footage posted above shows the National Crime Agency raiding Kavanagh's Staffordshire property in January 2019

But before he was sentenced the now-57-year-old hatched a plot to fool the NCA and secure a reduced term by pretending to help them uncover an illicit stash of weapons. He enlisted others, including his brother-in-law, Liam Byrne, 44, from Dublin, and Shaun Kent, 38, from Liverpool, to help.

READ MORE: Kinahan cartel boss Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh admits EnchroChat firearms plot hatched behind bars

They amassed a haul of 11 firearms, including three Skorpion submachine guns, three Heckler and Koch, an Uzi submachine gun and ammunition from the UK, the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland.

Kavanagh had hoped the ruse would lead the NCA to commend him for helping them and look favourable to the court. But the plan was foiled after French police smashed the secure encrypted EncroChat communications system in April 2020, and passed information on to the NCA.

Thomas Kavanagh's gated mansion in Sutton Road, Mile Oak, which had a £130,000 Audi R8 Spyder parked on the driveway and was so well fortified, including being fitted with “reinforced bulletproof glass”, that it took officers longer than usual to force entry.

He had first approached the NCA in December 2020. He went on to claim in an interview in April 2021 that he had intelligence about an arms cache of between ten and 20 weapons, said to have come from Holland.

Through his solicitor, he provided a map with instructions and X marking the spot in Newry, Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland, assisting the NCA operation, went to a farmer’s field, and up a bank, where they found buried, just beneath the surface, two holdalls containing the guns and ammunition.

Thomas Kavanagh (Image: Jason Roberts/PA Wire)

At the time, the NCA said the guns were in good condition and ready for use. Having reviewed the EncroChat data in greater detail, the NCA concluded Kavanagh’s tip-off was a put-up job and withdrew its co-operation.

Kavanagh, Byrne and Kent were about to face trial at the Old Bailey, but pleaded guilty to a string of charges at the 11th hour on Wednesday. All three admitted two charges of conspiring to possess a prohibited weapon, and two charges of conspiring to possess prohibited ammunition, between January 9 2020 and June 3 2021.

Kavanagh and Kent also admitted conspiring with others to pervert the course of justice. They are due to be sentenced next month.

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