Thieves travelled to Wales to carry out 'planned and professional' van raids

​​​​​​​Two men from Worcestershire stole tradespeople’s’ tools worth around £13,000 from Wales

A man, wearing a GPS tracker ankle tag from Worcestershire, made trips to mid and west Wales to break into vans and steal tools, Wales Online reported.

Aston Amos and his mate Robbie Bate broke into tradesmen's vans from Builth Wells and Brecon to Newcastle Emlyn during a series of nocturnal thefts, stealing tools worth around £13,000 and staying in a Welsh hotel along the way.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court described the cross-border raids as a "planned and professional" job and said there was "little more cruel" than taking the tools which honest, hard-working people need to earn a living.

The court heard that in July this year, Dyfed-Powys Police received a series of reports of vans being broken into and tools being stolen at locations across Powys and Carmarthenshire, with the thefts being committed on the nights of Thursday, July 17 and Thursday, July 24. A large number of items were taken in the thefts.

The court heard that police began searching CCTV footage and identified a black Audi A4 as a vehicle of interest.

Detectives then used automatic number plate recognition cameras to track its journeys from the West Mercia area to Wales and back. Inquiries led to a hotel in St Clears where Amos had booked a room and registered the number plate of the Audi.

Judge Geraint Walters said the defendants had travelled a considerable distance from their homes to target white vans and steel tools in a "planned and professional" job.

He said there was "little more cruel" than taking the tools that a hard-working tradesman needs to earn a living, and he told the defendants they should be ashamed of themselves.