A man with a long history of taking other people's cars stole his "umpteenth" vehicle and hours later slammed it into two parked cars and through a garden wall, a court has heard.
It was only a sturdy set of railings alongside a mobility ramp which stopped the car Ricky Davies was driving from colliding with a house. The driver - who has 98 previous offences on his record - ran off from the wreckage but was identified thanks to his blood and saliva left on the crashed vehicle's airbag.
The defendant's advocate told Swansea Crown Court that his client could not remember a time in the last 23 years when he wasn't either in prison, on licence following release from prison, or serving a community order.
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Hannah George, prosecuting, said that on the morning of February 20, 2021, the owner of a Honda Civic car living in Mendip Close in Fforestfach, Swansea, woke up to find his vehicle had gone from outside the house. That lunchtime the missing Civic crashed into two parked cars in Heol Trefor in Penlan - writing them off - before ploughing through a garden wall.
The prosecutor said the Honda came to rest on a mobility ramp outside a house, and it was only the presence of the railings on the ramp which had stopped the out-of-control car from hitting the property. The driver of the Civic was seen by witnesses to exit the car and run off towards Penlan Leisure Centre.
Police were called and blood and saliva samples were subsequently recovered from the deployed airbag of the crashed car - these samples were matched to 35-year-old Davies. You can read amore about the work of South Wales Police's hi-tech forensic lab here. The defendant wasn't interviewed until September, 2021, with the interview being conducted in HMP Swansea where Davies was being held on remand having been charged with possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage in relation to a separate incident. He answered "no comment" to all questions asked. The court heard that in total, the defendant had caused more than £7,600 worth of damage.
The prosecutor said the court would doubtless want an explanation for the delay in the case, and she was able to provide some details. She said the forensic evidence had been available to police in July, 2021, but difficulties getting into Swansea Prison meant Davies wasn't interviewed until the September. The barrister said the case file had then been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision in March, 2022, but had been returned to police in Swansea with an action plan of further work which was needed before it was resubmitted in November - the CPS authorised charging on December 22, 2022, and the defendant was charged via a postal requisition letter on January 23 this year.
Ricky Davies, now of Graig Road, Morriston, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 47 previous convictions for 98 offences of which 45 are theft and kindred matters. The court heard that while he had convictions for burglaries, "most" of his previous convictions over the last 23 years concerned taking vehicles without consent - known as TWOCing - or the aggravated form of the offence.
Giles Hayes, for Davies, said the offending before the court dated back to early 2021 when the defendant had been living a "very chaotic lifestyle" and effectively been homeless and living in a car. He said his client had told him that he could not recall a time in the last 23 years when he had not either been in prison, on licence following release from prison, or serving a community order, and his "coping mechanism" had been using drink and drugs.
The advocate said that since being released from his last custodial sentence, in August last year, the defendant had moved away from Penlan - the area where he was born and had grown up - and was now living with a friend in a different part of Swansea, was free of drugs and alcohol, and "can see the wood for the trees".
Judge Paul Thomas KC told Davies that in February, 2021, he had, for the "umpteenth time", taken someone's car and crashed it before running off and leaving "a scene of mayhem" behind him. He said the defendant's life could go in one of two ways from here - he could either continue the progress he had made since last summer or "return to his old ways".
The judge said the appropriate sentence on the guidelines after trial was one of 12 months in prison - with a one-quarter discount for the guilty pleas, that was reduced to nine months. Judge Thomas said that, given the "unacceptable" delay in the case and a detailed pre-sentence which showed signs that, "for the first in his life", Davies was growing up, he was persuaded to suspend the sentence.
Davies was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and must complete a rehabilitation course and mental health treatment requirement. The judge noted that the people of Penlan were probably not unhappy that the defendant had moved from their area, and he said that if Davies successfully completed the mental health requirement there was a prospect that he would no longer be a "menace" to the community.
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