Tinos Short (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
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A 20-year-old who stole vehicles across the Brecon area, leaving residents without transport and frightened inside their own homes, has been sent to prison for four years.
Tinos Short, now of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Friday after admitting 17 offences committed earlier this year.
The break-ins
A householder in Brecon was roused at 4am on 18 February by his barking dog. Checking his Ring doorbell recording, he watched a stranger push open his front door and step inside. Downstairs, the door stood open, the dog had bolted into the road, and his Hyundai was missing – along with the keys, lifted from a jacket pocket. Replaying the footage, he saw the defendant holding those keys before driving the car off.
Roughly ten minutes on, prosecutor Alexandra Wilson told the court, a woman living nearby was woken by the sound of her gate opening. Looking out, she saw two men at the entrance to her property. They walked up to the house before taking her Vauxhall. CCTV later identified Short.
The crash
The second raid came on 19 March. A homeowner, then at work, was alerted by his Ring app at 3.30am to a man testing his front door handle before moving on to try a neighbour’s.
A resident further along the street looked from a bedroom window to find headlights burning. A Volkswagen Scirocco belonging to a neighbour was being wrenched out of a parking space, reversing hard into the vehicle behind and dragging its bumper along the one in front. After several attempts the driver freed the car and accelerated away.
Moments later came a loud bang and headlights angled towards the sky, Ms Wilson said. The Scirocco had landed on its roof. Smoke rose from the wreck as a man hauled himself out. He appeared to be intoxicated, and asked the onlooker to help him turn the car back over. Instead he climbed back inside, switched off the engine, and fled down an alleyway.
The Scirocco’s owner woke to find his home had been ransacked, and learned from his neighbour what had become of his car.
Further offending
A second collision followed when Short drove a stolen Vauxhall Meriva through Sennybridge with two of its tyres blown out.
A farmer working his land at Brecon noticed two men on mobile phones close by. His silver Mitsubishi, carrying his tools and equipment, was later driven away.
The arrest
That same day an officer spotted Short at the wheel in Brecon and moved to stop him. He pulled up briefly, but drove off as the officer stepped out of the police vehicle to speak to him.
He was eventually found concealed in the attic of his home and taken to Brecon police station. His eyes were glazed and he was unsteady on his feet. Refusing to provide a sample, he said: “I would do a drugs wipe but it will come back for coke as I’ve not long done it.”
The charges
Short pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated vehicle-taking, two of burglary, four of driving while disqualified, four of driving with no insurance, one of dangerous driving, one of attempted burglary, one of taking a vehicle without consent and one of failing to provide a specimen.
The court was told he already had 15 previous convictions, spanning burglary, theft, shoplifting, aggravated vehicle-taking and taking a vehicle without consent.
Mitigation
Hywel Davies, defending, said his client accepts his way of life has to change and is moving away from Brecon to distance himself from negative influences. The barrister described a vulnerable childhood in which Short was taken into care after losing his father and his uncle within a short space of time.
Sentencing
Judge Wayne Beard imposed a total of four years’ imprisonment. Short was also disqualified from driving for five years.
