Stolen van driver left trail of destruction in ram-raid on shop

A MAN stole a van and smashed it through the front of a cycle shop, causing around £180,000 worth of damage, a court has heard.

- JASON EVANS

The ram-raid was the culmination of a spree of offending by Matthew Morgan, which saw him damaging and breaking into a string of vehicles and burgling a shop, stealing more then £1,700 worth of cigarettes and vapes.

Swansea Crown Court heard Morgan had 36 previous convictions or 85 previous offences on his record, including burglaries, taking a vehicle without consent, theft from vehicles, and going equipped.

Harry Dickens, prosecuting, said the spree of offending began on the weekend of March 29-30 this year, when Morgan broke into vans and lorries parked outside commercial garages and repair shops on Neath Road in the Landore area of Swansea.

He said in total the defendant smashed his way into five vehicles parked outside the businesses, taking items including tools, a stereo and a TV. Morgan damaged another three vehicles in his attempts to get inside.

The court heard that the offending was discovered when staff at the garages turned up for work on the Monday morning, and the spree was reported to the police. CCTV recovered from the area showed a hooded male arriving and leaving the scene on a bicycle. An investigation was launched to try to identify the culprit.

The prosecutor said Morgan struck again in the early hours of April 19, when he used an "implement" - likely a screwdriver - to "attack" the security shutters on the Spar shop on Conway Road in Penlan.