Newtown man jailed for burglary

Michael Evans, 25, from Treowen, Newtown, must serve eight months in addition to a five year and four month sentence he received last year for two robberies.

Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court, hit out at delays in the case which he said now caused sentencing difficulties.

The house burglary dated back to December 2017, pre-dating the robberies of February 2018 for which he was sentenced in August.

But in August of last year he had received the substantial sentence for two robberies dating back to February of last year.

The 2017 burglary happened at the house of a vulnerable 77 year old with Evans stealing a credit card.

The pensioner then had a call from someone who said they were from the police asking for his PIN number. He refused and rang police.

In a victim impact statement he said he remained upset by what had happened and found it difficult to trust people.

Defending barrister Phillip Clemo said that his client entered a guilty plea, there had been an unjustifiable delay in the case, and he was deeply concerned about the position he now found himself in.

He was now facing the prospect of his sentence being extended for no good reason, he said.

Judge Rowlands said that taking totality into account, the defendant would receive eight months for the burglary, which was considerably less a sentence than if it stood alone. But it would have to be served consecutive to the sentence he was now serving.

He said that it had taken a ridiculously long time for the case to get to court.