Killer ex-soldier jailed for court order breaches
A FORMER soldier who killed a dad-ofthree a decade ago and later became involved in organised crime has been jailed again – for using Facebook and having a secret phone.
Leon Wells, 38, killed Alan Brown in an unprovoked attack outside a pub in Tredegar in May 2008 and was jailed for three years after being convicted of manslaughter.
Since that conviction, Wells has been in and out of the courts and was made subject to a serious crime prevention order (SCPO) in 2018. But the defendant was back before Cardiff Crown Court yesterday after breaching the order for the second time in a year.
Prosecutor Tim Evans said police visited Wells’ home in Abertysswg, Caerphilly, at 4am on October 6 in relation to an unrelated investigation. He was asked if he was in possession of a mobile phone but he said he had “left it in work”.
Officers found an iPhone underneath bedclothes and after searching the defendant’s Mercedes they found an IMO “burner” phone underneath the driver’s seat.
While Wells had notified the police about the iPhone, the authorities had no knowledge of the IMO phone.
It was examined and had a call history between July and October 2020 with a number of “cryptic” messages from numbers belonging to what police identified as people involved in organised crime.
Wells was also found to be using a
Facebook account in his own name which had not been disclosed to the authorities and constituted another breach of the order.
The defendant, of McLaren Cottages, later pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching a SCPO.
Listing Wells’ previous convictions, Mr Evans referred to the manslaughter conviction which was followed by a sixmonth term for harassment in February 2011.
He was jailed for five years in May 2014 for conspiracy to supply cocaine and was fined for possession of cocaine in September 2016.
In May 2017 Wells was jailed for two months for conspiracy to a supply controlled drug of Class B and in August 2018 he was jailed for 32 months. He was first made subject to an SCPO following this conviction.
His most recent conviction was for assault by beating, making threats, and criminal damage, for which he received a 12-month sentence in April 2020. He also pleaded guilty on that occasion to breaching the SCPO by possessing more than one bank account.
Defence barrister Christopher Rees QC said Wells accepted his client had made a deliberate breach of the SCPO but denied he had made a persistent breach.
Sentencing, Judge Tracey LloydClarke said: “This order was designed to prevent you from becoming involved in serious and organised crime. You know your obligations under this order and you chose again not to comply with it.”
Wells was sentenced to two years and four months in prison and the SCPO was extended to last for five years.