Joshua Smith (Image: South Wales Police)
Last Updated: 1 minute ago
A 25-year-old from Barry has been sent to prison after magistrates heard he walked into a supermarket he was banned from and took almost £380 worth of goods.
Joshua Smith was handed 12 weeks’ imprisonment at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court, with the term ordered to begin only once he has finished a sentence he is already serving.
Banned from the store
A criminal behaviour order made against Smith on February 4 prohibited him from setting foot inside the Asda on Ffordd y Mileniwm. He ignored it on June 17, going into the store and taking two separate lots of stock – one worth £203, the other £174.48.
The same order placed Holton Road off limits. Smith accepted turning up there on March 29 and June 13, 2026. Magistrates imposed no additional penalty for those two visits, folding them into the other matters before the bench.
Public decency offences
Alongside the theft and breach allegations, Smith admitted two counts of outraging public decency, committed on August 28 and September 9, 2025 after he urinated in public.
The court concluded that only custody would meet the case, pointing to Smith’s “flagrant disregard for people and their property”. The presence of a second, near-identical offence made matters worse.
A run of shop thefts
Smith’s record of taking goods from Barry shops stretched back further. In December 2025 he lifted a four-pack of Stella Artois lager, priced at £6.75, from a One Stop branch. In April he walked out of a supermarket with two jars of coffee worth £12. Compensation was ordered in both instances, though no extra punishment followed.
Sentencing
The 12-week term relates to the £203 theft and runs consecutively to Smith’s existing sentence. Matching 12-week terms for the second Asda theft and for the criminal behaviour order breach will be served at the same time rather than one after the other.
Smith must also pay £377.48 in compensation to Asda, covering the full value of what he removed from the store.
The bench heard he had returned to the same conduct repeatedly despite the restrictions placed on him.
