A man bought a stash of jewellery which had been stolen in a raid on an elderly woman's house just hours earlier and then pawned it and doubled his money, a court has heard. Thousands of pounds worth of jewellery were taken in the burglary with many of the items given to the victim by her late husband.

Luke Davies bought some of the newly-stolen jewellery then quickly sold it to a pawnbroker and made back twice what he had paid for the items. The defendant's barrister described the way the case against his client had been dealt with as "an incompetent merry dance".

Hywel Davies, prosecuting, told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court that on the evening of April 22 this year a burglary was carried out on a detached house in Swansea Road in Merthyr during which a haul of designer clothes, jewellery, and a coin collection valued at £40,000 was stolen. He said the defendant became involved a few hours later when he bought some of the stolen jewellery including a gold watch, chains, and earrings for £150 and quickly sold them on to pawnbrokers Ramsdens for £312.

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The court heard that when police searched the 29-year-old defendant's house they found bags of women's clothes which Davies accepted were stolen though they were not from the Swansea Road burglary. In interview he accepted buying some of the stolen jewellery but denied being involved in the burglary. In her impact statement the victim of the burglary – a widow in her 70s – said she no longer feels safe in her own home and has installed CCTV and other security measures at the property. She said much of the jewellery which had been stolen had been give to her by her late husband. Get the latest crime and court stories sent straight to your email inbox with our free newsletter

Luke Davies, of Swansea Road, Merthyr, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of handling stolen goods when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. The court heard he had originally been charged with burglary but the pleas to handling were accepted after what the prosecutor said were "delays and failures" by police and forensics in the case. The defendant has 11 previous convictions for 18 offences including matters of violence as well as drugs and non-domestic burglary. At the time of the offending Davies was subject to a 10-month suspended sentence imposed in May 2022 for inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Kevin Seal, for Davies, said there had never been any forensic evidence to link the defendant to the burglary "despite what was said to him in his police interview" and he described the way the case had been handled as "an incompetent merry dance". He said Davies was a family man with children by a former partner and was also expecting another child with his current partner in December and he said his client accepted he should never have got involved in the incident.

Recorder Aidan Eardley KC said within a few hours of the burglary the defendant was in possession of items of stolen jewellery which he then sold. He said he had read a pre-sentence report on the defendant which detailed the courses he had taken while on remand which would hopefully help to keep him "on the straight and narrow" in the future.

With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Davies was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison and the judge activated eight weeks of the suspended sentence he was in breach of to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 24 weeks. Defendants ordinarily serve up to half their sentence in custody before being released on licence but the time Davies has spent on remand awaiting sentence means his release is likely to be imminent.

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