A 19-year-old from Barry has been sentenced to 32 months in prison. He went back to breaking into homes while on licence from a young offender institution.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that Jacob Lawday, of Hood Road, had burgled or tried to burgle “at least” 40 houses since August last year. The judge said spells in custody had not stopped him.
The Sully raid
Prosecutor Tim Lewis said the latest offending happened on September 10 this year. In the middle of the night, Lawday got into a house in Sully, in the Vale of Glamorgan, while a couple and their two daughters were asleep upstairs.
He took keys for several vehicles and stole an Audi S6 that was parked on the drive.
Tracked down
After the break-in was reported, police saw the Audi being driven in Penarth. It sped away from officers and was later found abandoned.
CCTV led officers to Lawday. When they arrested him at his home in Barry, they found the other sets of car keys taken from the Sully house.
What he admitted
Lawday appeared by videolink for sentencing. He had already pleaded guilty to:
- burglary of the Sully house
- attempted burglary at a second house in Sully on the same night
- attempted burglary in July, when he got into the summerhouse of a property in Penarth but could not get into the main house
He also asked for another 24 attempted burglaries, committed during the summer of 2026, to be taken into consideration.
An earlier spree
The court heard Lawday had already been locked up once for similar offending. In February this year, he was given 24 months’ detention in a young offender institution for 24 offences of attempted burglary, burglary and vehicle theft across Cardiff and the Vale.
That run began in September 2025. He and an accomplice broke into a house in Llanmaes, near Llantwit Major, and took a Kia X-Ceed and a Mercedes E 220. The owners used tracking devices to find both cars in Penarth.
While recovering the cars, officers saw a Range Rover being driven suspiciously. Checks showed it was on cloned plates and had been stolen from an address in Cardiff three days earlier. When police tried to stop it, Lawday and another teenager ran off, but they were caught after a short chase on foot.
Lawday was released on bail and then targeted four more addresses over two days that September. During that time he stole a BMW and a Peugeot from a property in Ogmore-by-Sea. CCTV then led police to a Transit van he was travelling in as a passenger. Four stolen bikes and a key for a BMW were found in the back, and he was arrested again.
He was released on licence in April and was still on that licence when he started offending again.
Defence
Derrick Gooden, representing Lawday, said his client chose not to work with probation after his release. Instead he “re-engaged with old acquaintances” and started using cannabis. Mr Gooden added that Lawday was given a full recall to detention after he was arrested for the new offences.
Sentencing
Recorder Paul Lewis KC described Lawday as a “determined and persistent burglar” whose method was to enter properties looking for car keys and vehicles to steal. He said the teenager was “clearly not deterred” by custodial sentences.
After a one-third reduction for his guilty pleas, Lawday was sentenced to 32 months in prison. He will serve no more than half of it in custody before being released on licence.
The recorder explained that because Lawday had been recalled, the law requires the new sentence to start immediately. It cannot run consecutively to the sentence he was recalled on.
