A teenager who was involved with a "professional and sophisticated" gang which stole cars from across south Wales went on the run from police for 15 months, a court has heard.
Despite apparently remaining in Swansea during his time at large, Leo Bailey avoided being arrested for more than a year until the car he was travelling in crashed, and police were called to the scene. A judge has said he wants an explanation from a senior officer as to why police seemingly did "little or nothing" to find the defendant during his time on the run.
Bailey has now been locked up, not only for the part he played in the car theft operation but for dangerous driving - an unelated offence which saw him almost knocking down a dog walker while racing along a footpath on a moped - and for skipping bail and disappearing.
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Swansea Crown Court heard Bailey had just turned 18 when, in late 2019, he became involved with a gang of Swansea-based car thieves. The gang - Matthew Ackerman, Kryon Farrell, and Courtney Livoti - used "pool cars" to travel from their homes in Swansea to locations across south Wales from Barry to Blackwood where they stole vehicles, fitted them with cloned or stolen plates, and quickly disposed of them. Most of the cars taken by the thieves were Fords, and especially Ford Fiestas.
Georgina Buckley, prosecuting, told the court the gang was running a "professional and sophisticated operation" which was responsible for stealing cars worth more than £100,000. Bailey was involved with one of the "pool cars" which the gang used during their thefts - a Nissan Qashqai which was taken from Pontlottyn near Rhymney in October 2019 and then fitted with cloned plates. The members of the group were subsequently identified by a police investigation codenamed Operation Tail Fin which saw officers piece together their movements and the various cars they were driving on the relevant dates using mobile phone cell site analysis, and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras across south Wales. You can read about Operation Tail Fin and the sentences handed down to the conspirators here.
The operation to catch the car thieves grew from a major police investigation into a family-based gang of burglars who used stolen cars to carry out ruthless smash and grab raids at homes across south Wales. In total the burglary gang stole jewellery worth more than half a million pounds, much of it high-quality Asian gold, during their six-month spree of offending which saw them breaking into scores of family homes. You can read the inside story of how police caught the gang - which was based at the travellers' site on Swansea Vale - here.
The court heard that while police were investigating the spate of car thefts, Bailey was involved in the dangerous driving of a moped in the Morfa area of Swansea. At lunchtime on April 10, 2020, a man was walking his dog on the riverside footpath near the city's Liberty Stadium when Bailey came around a blind bend and almost crashed into the pedestrian. The prosecutor said the walker told the defendant he should not be riding the machine on the footpath, and Bailey responded by riding his moped at him, threatening to kick his puppy in the head, and then trying to slap the victim in the face. The defendant rode off - still shouting threats and abuse at the dog walker - and the police were notified.
The teenager was spotted by police later that afternoon in the same area of town riding on footpaths and pedestrian crossings, and doing wheelspins and "burn outs". Officers chased Bailey and he dumped the moped in the Landore park and ride car park before running off and jumping into the River Tawe in a bid to escape. After a number of attempts Bailey got out of the river and officers drew their tasers but the defendant again jumped into the Tawe. He was subsequently arrested.
The defendant pleaded guilty to dangerous driving when he appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court and the case was committed to Swansea Crown Court for sentencing - but Bailey skipped court bail and went on the run. A warrant for his arrest was issued in June 2021 but that warrant was not executed until September this year when officers attended reports of a car crash and found the injured wanted man in the passenger seat - Bailey was taken to hospital suffering with a brain bleed, and was later arrested after being discharged.
Leo Jay Levi Bailey, now aged 20, of Furnace Way, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, dangerous driving, and failing to surrender to bail when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has one previous conviction for one offence, said to be for an unrelated matter.
Helen Randall, for Bailey, said the defendant was "realistic" about the situation he found himself in, and about the sentence he faced. She said her client had just turned 18 at the time he became with the car gang, and his involvement had been for a much shorter period than the others. She said the the prosecution facts about the dangerous driving were accepted in full, and said it was accepted that Bailey's time at large - during which he lived with friends and relatives at a number of addresses in the Morriston, Townhill and Waun Wen areas of Swansea - had been a "deliberate evasion of the police and courts".
Judge Huw Rees said police were to be "roundly criticised" for not executing the arrest warrant sooner, and he said he wanted an explanation from a senior officer within seven days as to why "so little effort, if any, has been expended" in finding the defendant.
Bailey was sentenced to a total of 14 months detention in a young offenders' institution comprising three months for handling stolen goods, eight months for dangerous driving, and three months for breach of bail, all to run consecutively. The plea to the handling charge attracted a 25% discount for a guilty plea, while the plea to dangerous driving attracted a one-third discount. Bailey will serve up to half the 14 months in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. He was disqualified from driving for a total of two years seven months, and must pass an extended test before he gets a licence.
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