Burglar made his getaway in a taxi

A “PROFESSIONAL burglar” ordered a taxi to transport himself and the 65-inch television and 55 bottles of alcohol he had just stolen during an early-hours breakin, a court has heard.

An intoxicated Richard Nixon had been trying door handles on parked cars and vans in the area and taking items from unlocked vehicles before burgling a summer house and stealing the television and booze.

Sending Nixon – who has more than 100 previous offences on his record – back to prison, a judge said it seemed the 37-year-old had not learned his lesson from his past offending.

Regan Walters, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court the spree of offending happened in Tircoed village in Penllergaer, Swansea, in the early hours of April 2.

He said Nixon began by trying door handles on parked vehicles on the estate. Two turned out to be unlocked, and from one he took a laptop and children’s clothes and from the other a wallet and a girl’s coat. Nixon then entered a summer house in the garden of one of the houses and stole the TV set worth around £1,000 along with 55 bottles of wine and spirts worth £700.

The court heard that during the day of April 2 residents in Tircoed began posting on a local Facebook community page that items had been stolen from their cars overnight, and this news prompted others to check their vehicles and properties and to look at CCTV and video doorbell footage.

Police were contacted and when an officer viewed some of residents’ video footage she identified the defendant. The prosecutor said checks then showed Nixon had ordered a taxi on the night in question to collect him from Tircoed and take him to Penllergaer.

Officers went to an address of a family member of the defendant’s on April 8 and found Nixon along with the missing wallet, though photographs of the victim’s children which had been in the wallet were gone.

Nixon was arrested and subsequently gave a largely “no comment” interview but described the allegations against him as “s***” and said lots of people wear similar trousers, jumpers and trainers.

Richard Andrew Nixon, of Gors Road, Penllergaer, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to burglary, two counts of vehicle interference and two counts of theft from a vehicle when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He was sentenced to a total of 14 months in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.