Marcus Thomas, 37, from Port Talbot, has been sentenced to four years in prison for burglary and aggravated vehicle taking. The court heard he had 166 previous offences on his record.
Thomas wandered the streets of his hometown in the dead of night, trying front doors until he found one unlocked. He then stole a Mercedes, which was subsequently crashed deliberately and written off.
Burglary and theft details
Brian Simpson, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that on the morning of June 1 this year, a man living on Arthur Street in Port Talbot found police at his door, informing him his Mercedes had been recovered in a badly damaged state from the Sandfields area. The victim was unaware his car had been taken until he noticed his keys were missing from their usual place by the front door.
The court heard the Mercedes had been parked on nearby Bailey Street the previous night. At shortly after 2am, Thomas was caught on CCTV driving the car away. The vehicle was later seen on Dalton Road, where two women were in the car with him. The trio stopped at a property for a short time before driving off together.
Crash and arrest
Later that morning, Thomas and the two women spent several hours at a flat on Cwrt Morfa Afan before one of the females drove the Mercedes into a fence, then reversed it into a parked van. Thomas was seen standing by the car "laughing". The trio then ran off, leaving the keys in the ignition and the engine running.
Police were alerted, and Thomas was found and arrested on Dalton Road. The cost of repairing the stolen Mercedes was put at £7,000, and the owner's insurance company wrote it off. In his impact statement, the victim said the burglary and theft left him feeling anxious, stressed, and struggling to sleep. He said he had saved up for months to buy the car and was now "always on edge".
Previous convictions
Thomas, of Promenade View, Sandfields, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance. He also admitted attempted burglary, committed minutes before the car theft, when he tried the front door of another house on the same street.
Thomas has 62 previous convictions for 166 offences, including shoplifting, threatening behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, dangerous driving, arson, driving while unfit through drugs, four burglaries, 11 taking vehicles without consent, 11 aggravated taking vehicles without consent, and 20 driving while disqualified.
In 2017, he was jailed for two years for breaking into Grove Golf Club in Porthcawl with another man, threatening a cleaner with a crowbar, raiding the bar, and grabbing cash from the till. In 2019, he was jailed for two years and eight months for being part of a gang that burgled a vicar's house in Port Talbot, stealing more than £50,000 worth of jewellery. In 2018, he was jailed for 15 months for aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving, driving a stolen car along a pavement in Neath town centre. In 2023, he was sentenced to 54 months for robbery, dangerous driving, and assaulting an emergency worker, after stealing a car at knife-point in Swansea and ramming a police car.
He was out of prison on licence for the 2023 offending when he committed the new offences and has been recalled until June 2028.
Sentencing
James McKenna, for Thomas, said he had represented the defendant for 20 years since his offending began as a juvenile, and it had to be accepted he had a "poor record". He said there was little planning in the burglary, and Thomas had been released from his last custodial sentence in July 2025, remaining out of trouble for nearly a year until forming a new relationship, being reintroduced to controlled drugs, and within a week "reverting to type".
Judge Christopher Vosper KC said Thomas had "set out to burgle a property" to take a car, then "made the car available" to a female who damaged it. With discounts for guilty pleas, Thomas was sentenced to four years in prison, to serve half in custody before release on licence. He was also banned from driving for five years and must pass an extended test. Legal proceedings are underway against a female in relation to the same incident.
