Liman Xhebexhia (Image: Gwent Police)
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A man who was part of a gang that smashed their way into a family home in Ebbw Vale – forcing a terrified mother and her three children to barricade themselves in a bedroom – has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Liman Xhebexhia, 39, of Morgan Street, Tredegar, had previously pleaded guilty to burglary and theft at Cardiff Crown Court. Four other members of the group remain at large.
Wrong target
The court heard the gang were believed to have raided the Cherry Tree Lane property under the assumption that its occupants were involved in organised crime and had a large stash of cannabis inside. They were wrong on both counts.
The family living there had only moved in around three weeks earlier after arranging a house swap with the previous occupants through Facebook. The people the gang had actually been looking for had already left.
The raid
Prosecutor Alex Glanville told the court that at just after 11pm on the night of February 26, the mother and her three children were upstairs when a loud smashing sound came from the ground floor. She initially thought a glass-filled cupboard had toppled over, but her teenage son recognised that someone had broken into the house and prevented her from going downstairs.
The family gathered together with their dog in a bedroom, pushed furniture against the door, and called 999. Through the barricade, they could hear multiple male voices and footsteps climbing the stairs. The intruders entered one of the children’s bedrooms before attempting to force open the door of the room where the family were sheltering. The family held the door closed.
One of the gang was heard saying words to the effect that “there is someone here”, and the group fled. When the mother eventually made her way downstairs, she found the house had been left “in a mess”. The gang had broken in through a ground floor bathroom window, left the front door wide open, and taken the keys to the family’s Kia car along with the vehicle itself.
Blood evidence
Officers arrived shortly after the 999 call. Scenes of crime officers recovered blood samples from near the smashed bathroom window, which were later linked to Xhebexhia through forensic analysis.
On arrest, the defendant denied any knowledge of the burglary. He suggested the blood may have been left on a previous occasion when he cut himself while doing building work, claiming to have worked at many different properties.
Criminal history
Xhebexhia had eight previous convictions for 15 offences. These included a burglary at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London in 2008 and three counts of robbery at Chelmsford Crown Court in 2011, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Defence
Kevin Seal, representing the defendant, said there had been an 11-year gap in Xhebexhia’s offending during which he had been working at a car wash in London.
Mr Seal told the court that although his client had leave to remain in the UK, he was deported to Albania in 2023. He re-entered the country the following year to rejoin his partner and child in Bristol, paying a £20,000 “fee” for the journey. The barrister described it as an illegal and dangerous crossing that could have cost lives – “but not, of course, for those who put him on a raft and sent him to this country”.
After returning, Xhebexhia worked part-time in a car wash and part-time as a tiler. However, those he owed the money to were “not happy with his repayments” and began issuing threats to the defendant and his partner.
Mr Seal said it was his client’s instructions that when he went to the Ebbw Vale property on the night in question, he believed he was going to “effectively rob a cannabis factory”. He said there was some evidence within the case papers to support this, with material suggesting the previous occupants had been involved in serious criminality.
Xhebexhia entered his pleas on the basis that he accepted entering the property with intent to steal and believed the property was a cannabis factory. The prosecution did not accept this basis but chose not to challenge it.
The barrister accepted the situation had been an “awful” one for the family.
Sentencing
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said the break-in had been a frightening ordeal for the victims and that the experience had had a substantial impact on the family. She told the defendant that as soon as he had entered the property, it must have been obvious to him that it was a family home.
Xhebexhia received a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. He will serve 40% of that sentence in custody before being released on licence, subject to possible immigration detention and deportation.
