London crooks drove down M4 to burgle house
TWO Londoners drove to south west Wales in a car with cloned plates to carry out a “well-organised and planned burglary”.
Kane Oye and Alex Christopher Prendergast broke into the house of a Port Talbot woman who was away on holiday, ransacked the place and stole two cars.
The only link between the London men and Port Talbot appears to be the fact that Oye’s girlfriend’s mum lives in the town.
Swansea Crown Court heard that in August this year the owner of a house on Western Avenue in Sandfields went abroad on holiday, leaving her sister to look after the property.
Tom Scapens, prosecuting, said on the evening of August 20 the house-sitting sibling told her sister she felt unwell and would be leaving.
Hours later 28-year-old Oye and 22-year-old Prendergast arrived in the latter’s black Audi Q2 car wearing masks and gloves and armed with a crowbar.
The bottom panel of the house’s rear door was smashed and entry gained, with the burglars carrying out an “untidy search” of the property, including emptying wardrobes and flipping the mattress on the bed, before stealing keys to two cars and around £150 in cash.
The victim’s cars, a Peugeot RCZ sports car and a BMW, were then driven away one at a time, with the Audi being used to ferry the driver back to the scene of the crime to collect the second vehicle.
The prosecutor said the holidaying victim received news of the break-in in the early hours of August 21 when she had a phone call to say her cars had disappeared from outside her house.
Police were alerted and an investigation showed Prendergast’s Audi bearing cloned number plates heading to Port Talbot on the M4 motorway on the evening in question.
The Q2 was located and stopped, and officers found a balaclava, crowbar and sledgehammer inside. The mobile phones of both defendants had been paired over Bluetooth to the car, and there was a Port Talbot postcode in the sat nav.
Mr Scapens described it as a “well-organised and planned burglary far away from the defendants’ London homes”, and said that the only link between the pair and Port Talbot seemed to be that Oye’s girlfriend’s mother lived in the town.
The missing BMW was later found outside Oye’s house, and the Peugeot was also subsequently located and recovered.
In an impact statement read to the court, the victim said the burglars had “violated the sanctity” of her home and she no longer felt safe there.
She said she had had to change the locks on the cars, and install new security measures at the property
Oye, of Lavender Avenue, Brent, North London, and Prendergast, of Green Road, Enfield, North London, had both previously
pleaded guilty to burglary and two counts of theft when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Oye has five previous convictions for five offences, including possession of false documents, possession of a bladed article, and robbery, while Prendergast has no previous convictions.
Zarif Khan, who represented both defendants, said while being held on remand in prison pending sentence Oye had faced a “backlash” “because of his ethnicity” and certain posts he made on social media site Instagram.
The barrister said the men continued to have the support of their families, and he invited the court to follow the recommendations in the detailed pre-sentence report.
Recorder Christopher Clee QC said he had no doubt the defendants’ journey to Port Talbot on the evening in question had been to commit a burglary.
He said having read a lot about the defendants he was prepared to “take a chance” on them, and not impose immediate custody.
Giving the defendants a 25 per cent discount for their guilty pleas, he sentenced them each to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered Oye to complete 140 hours of unpaid work and Prendergast to complete 120 hours.
Both men will also have to pay £899 each in compensation to their victim for the costs she has incurred.