A man stole a Hermes delivery van and gave undelivered parcels to his stepdaughter and her boyfriend. He was caught after police checked a car's registration number and discovered the van near his address.
Michael Hobbs, 38, took a Ford Transit from a self-employed delivery driver on June 8, 2020, who was delivering parcels in Newport. The driver left his keys in the van and left the vehicle while delivering items to houses in Allt-yr-yn Road.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday heard 19 undelivered parcels had been left in the van worth up to £10,000 but Hermes were unable to confirm the exact amount. The police were called and saw a vehicle on CCTV driving in convoy with the stolen van. The car was registered to Owen Lloyd, 23, who lived with Hobbs' stepdaughter Siobhan Evans, 22.
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On June 14 the van was recovered from Hobbs' home address of Llewellyn Street, Barry, and when police visited the home of Lloyd and Evans in Pany y Deri Close, Caerau, Cardiff, they found a Hermes box belonging to someone else as well as large quantities of clothing and packages.
Evans claimed Hobbs had asked to borrow Lloyd's Ford Fiesta for the day and upon returning it he brought two bags into the address, but they didn't know where they had come from or what was in them. Lloyd claimed he was working and was not responsible for the offences.
Hobbs later pleaded guilty to theft while Lloyd and Evans pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods. Hobbs had a number of previous convictions for thefts and taking vehicles without consent while his two co-defendants were of previous good character.
In mitigation, Ieuan Bennett for Hobbs said his client had served a prison sentence since committing these offences and did not want to go back to prison. He said the defendant had mended his ways and had cut himself off from previous bad influences.
Gareth Williams, for Lloyd and Evans, said his clients pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and said they had been deemed at low risk of re-offending. He said all they wanted to do was to put the matter behind them.
Sentencing, Recorder Paul Hobson said: "You Mr Hobbs stole a Hermes van and its contents while in the process of being delivered. You Ms Evans and Mr Lloyd handled the stolen property within that Hermes van. Within a short space of time the van and some of the property was recovered by police..... These were serious offences and items of considerable value."
Hobbs was sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and he was made subject to a three month curfew. Lloyd and Evans were both sentenced to a 12-month community order and ordered to each carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. Lloyd was ordered to carry out an 10 rehabilitation activity requirement and Evans was ordered to carry out an eight day rehabilitation activity requirement.
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