Lewis Jones (Image: South Wales Police)
Last Updated: 4 minutes ago
A man who spent other people’s money on his bank cards, emptied a shop’s tip jar and turned up at a chemist with a stolen prescription pad has been sent to prison.
Lewis Jones, 35, of no fixed abode, was dealt with at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court after admitting a run of offending spread across two south Wales communities. He was already behind bars serving another sentence when he was brought before the bench.
Cards used to buy alcohol and cigarettes
Four of the charges involved bank cards that belonged to other people and which Jones used without their permission. Working his way through three shops in Barry, he ran up a total of £107.08 on alcohol, cigarettes and food. Three further transactions were carried out in Cardiff – on 25 March, 2 May and 10 May – with each one funding purchases for himself.
Prescription pad deception
A stolen prescription pad was at the centre of a fifth fraud charge. On 13 March in Cardiff, Jones attempted to use it to obtain diazepam and pregabalin for his own use. He pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation over that attempt.
Tip jar and a smashed car window
Staff tips became a target on 21 April, when Jones helped himself to somewhere between £15 and £20 belonging to Rebecca Churchill at a shop in Barry. Earlier in the year, on 25 February, he had put through the rear passenger window of a Peugeot 208 owned by Christine Allen, again in Barry. Putting that right was costed at £135.
Sentencing
Magistrates were told Jones had previous convictions behind him and concluded that nothing short of immediate custody could meet the seriousness of what he had done.
Ten weeks in prison was imposed for the frauds. The term attached to the January bank card offence was ordered to follow on from a sentence handed down in a separate case on 9 July, rather than running alongside it. Two-week terms for the tip theft and the criminal damage will be served concurrently.
Jones must also hand over £135 in compensation to the owner of the damaged Peugeot and a further £15 to cover the stolen tips.
