A "professional burglar" ordered a taxi to transport himself and the 65inch television and 55 bottles of alcohol he had just stolen during an early hours break-in, 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 telly and booze. The whereabouts of the TV and the dozens of bottles of wines and spirts remain unknown.
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.
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Regan Walters, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that the spree of offending happened in Tircoed Village in Penllergaer, Swansea, in the early hours of April 2 this year. He said Nixon began by trying door handles of cars and vans parked on the estate - he searched a number of unlocked vehicles and from one of them took a laptop and children's clothes and from another a wallet and a girl's coat. Nixon then entered a summer house in the garden of one of the houses in the development and stole a 65inch television 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 the 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. No other items taken during the spree have been recovered.
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 has 44 previous convictions for 109 offences including 60 for thefts, burglaries, and other acquisitive offences.
Anthony O'Connell, for Nixon, said the father-of-two had been to a function on the night in question where he had consumed alcohol and that this, combined with his "inquisitive nature", had led to the offences before the court. He said Nixon had suffered with a drug problem for much of his life which he was now tackling, and he said the defendant had an offer of work with his father's decorating business upon his release from custody. The advocate said though it was something the courts may have heard before, it seems Nixon is now "determined to mend his ways".
Recorder Greg Bull KC told Nixon he could rightly be described as "almost a professional burglar", and he said it seemed he had not learned his lesson from the "many" previous burglary convictions over the years. He said he accepted the defendant had been under the influence of alcohol on the night in question but said there had been an element of planning in the Tircoed offending, at least in the aftermath when the defendant had booked a taxi to carry away the "loot".
Nixon was sentenced to 14 months in prison comprising 12 moths for the burglary and a total of to two months for the vehicle offences to run consecutively. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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