A burglar described by previous victims as a "bogeyman" is back behind bars after breaking into another house and stealing the family's car. Kevin Harmon has almost 150 previous offences on his criminal record including multiple burglaries and thefts, and was out of prison on licence for drug dealing when he committed his new offences.
Sending the defendant back to prison, a judge at Swansea Crown Court said he had spent most of his life "committing offences of one kind of another". The judge told Harmon that "unlike you", his most recent victims had been people who go out to work to earn their money honestly.
Latest burglary and arrest
Alycia Carpanini, prosecuting, told the court that the defendant's latest burglary happened in the early hours of July 14 this year. He entered a property on Gwili Terrace in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea while the homeowners were asleep upstairs and took items including phones, bank cards, cigarettes, and car keys. He then drove off in the victims' car which was parked outside.
The burglary was discovered later that morning when the victims awoke, and the police were alerted. Officers checked footage from video doorbells on the street along with CCTV coverage of the area, and identified Harmon. The 50-year-old defendant was located and arrested, and in his interview answered "no comment" to all questions asked.
Victim impact and background
In an impact statement read to the court by the prosecution barrister, the victim said the burglary had caused her family "great distress" and said they no longer feel safe in their own home. She said they had installed extra security measures at the property, and said they were worried that Harmon will return once he is let out of prison. She added that the loss of the car had caused huge inconvenience as the vehicle was used by both her and her husband to get to work.
Kevin Granville Harmon, of Westbury Street, Swansea, pleaded guilty to burglary and taking a vehicle without consent when he appeared in the dock. He has 45 previous convictions for 146 offences including burglaries, assaults, vehicle taking, going equipped for theft, thefts, and handling stolen goods.
In 2008 the defendant was sentenced to 30 months in prison after breaking into a house in Melin, Neath, in the dead of night while the householders - a mum and her young daughter - were asleep upstairs. He helped himself to food from the fridge before ransacking the kitchen and stealing items including the television, bank cards, and the first drawing the daughter had done for her mother. Harmon also took the family car which was subsequently found nearby burnt out. In an impact statement read to the court, the mum said her daughter was terrified that the "bogeyman" would return to their home.
In 2021 the defendant was sentenced to three years in prison for breaking into two houses in Margam, Port Talbot, and taking a haul of items including watches, jewellery, a laptop, computer games consoles, aftershave, and a Kia car. Shortly after taking the Sportage he crashed it into parked vehicles near Taibach Memorial Park. At the sentencing hearing the court was told that the children living in one of the houses he burgled that night have been left scared that the "bogeyman" was going to come back while they were asleep.
In 2024 the defendant was sentenced to 48 months in prison for being concerned in the supply of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to supply, and possession of heroin with intent to supply. He was out of prison on licence when he committed his most recent burglary.
Sentencing and mitigation
John Allchurch, for Harmon, said following his arrest for the Swansea burglary his client had been recalled back to prison to serve his 2024 sentence. He said the defendant has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, and a personality disorder for which he is being medicated - however, he said at the time of the burglary he had stopped taking his medication and was using street Valium.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Harmon had spent his life "committing offences of one kind of another" and was back before the courts "yet again" for burgling someone's house. He said the real mischief of burglary lay not so much in the value of items taken but in how it destroys victims' feelings of safety and security in their own homes - something he said he was sure Harmon had heard from judges "many times before". He told Harmon that "unlike you", his victims in the Swansea burglary go out to work to earn their money by honest means.
With one-third discounts for his guilty pleas, Harmon was sentenced to 34 months in prison. Judge Thomas said the sentence would have to start immediately and would be served concurrently with Harmon's recall period on the drugs matters, meaning "It is unlikely this sentence will extend the sentence you are currently serving". The defendant was also disqualified from driving for 29 months.
