A burglar who broke into three houses on the same street in a matter of hours and engaged his victims in a series of bizarre conversations had taken so much Valium he has no memory of the incident. From one of the properties Jason Owen took a mobile phone which had belonged to the recently-deceased wife of the 73-year-old homeowner and had great sentimental value.
The 42-year-old defendant also tried to break into a parked car on the same road, telling the owner who rushed out to challenge him that he was only trying to free a man from the boot of the vehicle.
Sian Cutter, prosecuting at Swansea Crown Court, said the spate of offending began at lunchtime on February 23 this year when the owner of a Ford Kuga car saw Owen puling at the rear window wiper and trying to open the boot of the vehicle while it was parked by her house in Pantyffynnon Road in Ammanford. The owner rushed outside and challenged him and Owen walked off claiming he was "trying to get a man out of the car" and then said he was trying to retrieve his hi-vis jacket from inside.
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The court heard that a short time later a 73-year-old man living in the same street heard his front door being opened and when he went to investigate saw a stranger standing in his hallway. Owen told the homeowner he was looking for someone but had made a mistake and turned and ran off. The pensioner initially believed the stranger had made a genuine mistake and thought nothing more about it but later that afternoon got talking to a neighbour who described a similar thing happening to him.
This second incident had involved a 79-year-old man who was watching TV at home when he heard the cupboards in his kitchen being opened and closed. When he went to see what was going on he found Owen in his house. The defendant left through the back door before turning around and telling the pensioner he had "come about the work" which needed doing on the property. The court heard the victim later found a phone belonging to his late wife, who had died just a few months earlier, was missing. Read about a family crime firm which brought misery to families across south Wales by burgling scores of homes and the painstaking police investigation which caught them.
Later that same afternoon a couple living in the same street saw Owen standing in their conservatory. When they approached and challenged him Owen told the couple it was in fact his house. He then offered them money not to call the police. One of the homeowners grabbed the intruder and took him to the floor but he managed to free himself and fled from the property before jumping over the garden wall. As he did so a number of phones fell from his pocket including the one taken from the previous burglary. The court heard the couple had only moved into the house a matter of weeks before Owen broke in.
Police were called and Owen was tracked down and arrested. He was found to be carrying a small amount of cannabis. In his subsequent interview he told officers he could not remember what had happened due to the amount of Valium he had taken.
Jason Owen, of Carregamman Isaf, Ammanford, admitted interfering with a vehicle, three counts of burglary, and possession of cannabis.. He has a string of previous convictions for both house and non-dwelling burglaries among other offences.
Nicola Powell, for Owen, said the defendant had very little recollection of the events of the day and cannot recall the conversations he had with the victims. She said her client was "thoroughly ashamed" of his actions, and feels that after being free of offending for 20 months he had let himself down.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told Owen he had a dreadful record for offending, especially as far as burglaries were concerned and jailed him for three and a half years. Owen will serve up to half that time in prison before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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