Night-long crime spree
‘Career criminals’ sent to prison
A JUDGE has condemned two “career criminals” for a night-long spree of offending which saw a house burgled, a motorbike stolen, garages broken into and a member of the public threatened with a pair of scissors.
Between them Stephen Court and Shaun Wood have convictions for more than 120 offences covering “the whole spectrum of criminal offences”.
One of them committed his first house burglary when he was aged 11.
Swansea Crown Court heard the spree took place in and around the Llwynhendy area of Llanelli on the night of June 23 this year.
Stephen Rees, prosecuting, said the pair’s offending started when they broke into a house in Gelli Road while the occupants were asleep upstairs, searching the property before taking bank cards and slipping out.
The court heard the victims were woken by their dog barking and went to investigate.
When it appeared nothing was amiss they returned to bed.
Shortly afterwards Court and Wood used the stolen cards to buy goods in the nearby petrol station.
The pair then stole a Kawasaki motorbike from outside a house, but in pushing it down the street they managed to crash it into a parked car.
The noise of this disturbed a neighbour and he and his adult son went to challenge the men.
Wood made off, but Court was caught and detained. Mr Rees said at this point Court produced a pair of scissors from a pocket and began threatening the men with it. However he was disarmed and held until police arrived.
Wood, meanwhile, continued the crime spree by breaking into four garages and smashing the windows of cars and damaging their ignition barrels. He was arrested later that night back in Gelli Street and found to be in possession of a small quantity of cannabis.
Both men subsequently gave no comment interviews to police.
Court, aged 28, of Gelli Road, Llanelli, admitted burglary, two counts of fraud, aggravated taking of a motorbike, and making threats with a bladed article while Wood, also aged 28 and of Gors Avenue, Townhill, Swansea, admitted burglary, two counts of fraud, aggravated taking of a motorbike, four counts of criminal damage, and possession of cannabis.
The court heard Court has 42 convictions for 85 offences spanning “the whole spectrum of criminal offending” including five house burglaries – the first committed when he was 11 – and “numerous” non-dwelling break-ins.
Wood has 23 previous convictions for 40 offences including for burglaries and robberies. At the time of the spree he was on a community order for going equipped for burglary.
David Singh, for Court, said the defendant had experienced a “difficult background” and battled a drug addiction for many years. He said Court had expressed his remorse and regret.
Giles Hayes, for Wood, said his client was “extremely disappointed” to find himself back in the dock. He said that after being released from his last custodial sentence in September the defendant had engaged with probation and started rebuilding relationships with his family, before “falling in with old friends”.
The advocate said on the night of the offending Wood had taken “a considerable amount of Valium”.
Judge Geraint Walters described the defendants as “career criminals” who had acted like “pack animals” on a sustained spree of offending. He told the defendants they were behaving like “delinquent teenagers” and should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
Court was sentenced to a total of 876 days in prison.
Wood was also sentenced to 876 days for the June offending and the judge revoked the community order he is in breach of and sentenced him to 120 days for those matters, to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 996 days.