A gang of thieves stole £ 100,000 worth of cars from locations across South Wales in a series of nightly raids, a court heard.
The group drove “pool cars” from their homes in Swansea, took more than a dozen vehicles, quickly fitted them with cloned or stolen license plates and resold them.
Most of the cars the gang picked up – Matthew Ackerman, Kyron Farrell, and Courtney Livoti – were Fords, and Ford fiestas in particular.
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The Swansea Crown Court heard that the thefts rampage began on October 22, 2019 when a Nissan Qashqai was stolen from Pontlottyn, near Rhymney. Thefts continued in the months that followed, with cars stolen from parking lots and outside addresses in Swansea, Blackwood, Blaenavon, Barry and Porth. A number of license plates that were used on the stolen cars were also stolen from other vehicles.
Prosecutor Georgina Buckley said the thefts followed a similar pattern, with the gang – usually Livoti – being driven from their Swansea homes to their destinations in “pool cars”. After a vehicle was stolen, it was often tagged with cloned or stolen license plates and then disposed of.
The total value of the stolen cars is around 100,000 euros.
The court heard the network broke on 1. Both vehicles had been stolen from the streets of Swansea for the past two days. The EcoSport was spotted by officers in the SA1 area of Swansea later that day, but they lost sight of it. The court heard that the vehicle was found the next day and Farrell’s DNA was recovered from the steering wheel.
The last vehicle stolen was a black Ford Kuga that was picked up in Swansea on March 27 – it was found in the Gorseinon area the next day and Ackerman’s DNA was found in it.
Miss George said officials working on Operation Tail Fin – the name given to the investigation into the thefts – were able to trace the movements of the defendants and the various cars they had driven on the relevant states Aggregate analysis of cell phone cells and Automatic License Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras across South Wales.
The three defendants were arrested on July 1st and 2nd. A fourth suspect wanted in connection with the thefts remains at large.
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Matthew John Ackerman, 23 years old, of Lloyd Road, Treboeth, Swansea, Kryon Anthony Farrell, 27 years old, of Croft Street, Dyfatty, Swansea, and 21-year-old Courtney Livoti, of Morris Drive, Pentrechwyth, Swansea, all had before pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal when they appeared in the dock for conviction. Livoti pleaded on the grounds that she did not know the purpose of the journeys the first two times that she had taken her co-defendants with her in her car, but did know the following journeys.
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The court also heard of the trio’s criminal record. Ackerman has a criminal record for possession of cannabis and drug driving; Farrell has a criminal record for possession of cocaine for the purpose of delivery, possession of cannabis, driving affairs, attempted sexual assault on a man through penetration, and violating the terms of his sex offender notification; Livoti already has a criminal record of assault, drug driving and possession of cannabis.
Andrew Evans, for Ackerman, said his client went into debt from a cocaine addiction, and the theft and subsequent sale of the cars was a way to get cash to pay off his debt.
Tom Scapens, for Farrell, pointed to the delay in the trial of the matter and said his client had committed no further crimes in the 21 months since the car thefts ended. He asked the court to determine that it was not a particularly sophisticated operation in which the defendants “left DNA everywhere”, identified their movements with cell phone and ANPR data, and “sloppily” exchanged license plates.
Lee Davies for Livoti said his client “started into this venture with a certain degree of naivety,” but it was accepted that she did not stop once the true nature of the travel became clear. He said the defendant is now nine months pregnant and will be born next week.
With discounts on their guilty guilty guilty guilty admissions, Ackerman and Farrell were each sentenced to 30 months in prison. Livoti was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention center for two years probation and has to complete a rehabilitation course.
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