Man was part of gang that raided over 70 homes
A MAN has admitted being part of a burglary gang which carried out scores of high-value burglaries across South Wales.
Michael Casey was part of a familybased group of burglars who raided more than 70 carefully-selected houses and stole jewellery worth up to £500,000.
Other members of the conspiracy were jailed in December 2019 but Casey remained at large until April this year when he was arrested in the north-west of England.
Casey, now aged 20, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle when he appeared in the dock at Swansea Crown Court.
Over a six-month period between July 2018 and January 2019 the gang, which operated from the travellers’ site in Mill Stream Way in Swansea Vale, Swansea, raided dozens of homes across Llanelli, Swansea, the Swansea Valley, Neath, Port Talbot, Porthcawl and Maesteg in a campaign of well-organised burglaries.
Their targets were usually elderly homeowners or people who the burglars believed had large quantities of jewellery.
The gang used stolen cars showing cloned or stolen number plates to get to and from their target properties and often carried out half a dozen or more break-ins in a single day.
While some of the group stayed in the car to act as lookouts and a getaway driver, the others would smash their way into the houses and ransack them, looking primarily for gold jewellery. Other items such as electrical goods were rarely taken.
On occasions they used bleach or other cleaning products on door handles and light switches to try to frustrate any subsequent forensic investigation.
Very little of the jewellery the gang took has ever been recovered by the police.
Keiran Joyce, of Mynells Gorse travellers’ site, Golf Course Lane, Leicester; Patrick Joyce, of HMP Onley, Northamptonshire; and William Joyce, Daniel Joseph Joyce, and David Joyce, all of Mill Stream Way, Swansea Vale, were all jailed for conspiracy to commit burglary following a lengthy trial at Swansea Crown Court in 2019.
Teenager Wayne Harty, a cousin of the Joyces, and Daniel Casey, both of the Mynells Gorse site in Leicester, were subsequently jailed after pleading guilty following lengthy periods on the run.
Michael Lee Timothy Casey, also of the Mynells Gorse site in Leicester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle on a basis that his involvement in the spree was limited to a five-day period during which he took part in a dozen burglaries.
The court heard that the prosecution accepted that basis.
Sentencing was adjourned to October 22 when the defendant is also expected to be sentenced for offences committed in the Manchester area while on the run.