These 12 men have committed an astonishing 1,747 crimes between them including burglaries, inflicting grievous bodily harm, robbery, assaults, drug dealing, possession of weapons, thefts, frauds, dangerous driving, and other offences. They have appeared before courts over and over again to be sentenced.
Each has appeared in Swansea Crown Court over the last 12 months to be sentenced for their latest offences. Many of them have a history of addiction to drugs. All have left scores of victims in the wake and caused untold misery. Here is what the dozen have done and what their representatives said on their behalf.
Darren Leyshon – 131 offences
Darren Leyshon
(Image: South Wales Police)
Darren Leyshon threatened, assaulted, and robbed customers at a Nando’s restaurant. He told one of his victims he was a professional boxer and was going to “beat the s***” out of him before making “gun gestures” with his hand at another victim and threatening to rip his head off. One of the victims was on his first ever visit to Swansea on the evening in question and said the experience had left him feeling “unsafe and confused” and reconsidering whether he should go ahead with making an application to study in the city. Leyshon was on police bail at time of the offending at the city’s Nando’s restaurant having threatened to burn down a probation office a fortnight earlier.
Darren Andrew Christopher Leyshon, formerly of Geiriol Road Townhill, Swansea, but now of no fixed abode, has 89 convictions for 131 offences including 11 criminal damages, 12 thefts, 12 assaults, and 21 matters of public disorder. Andrew Evans, for Leyshon, said the reality of the situation was that the defendant was not yet in a place where he was able to address the issues in his childhood and adult life that had led to his offending. The advocate accepted there was no realistic alternative to custody.
Leyshon was sentenced to three years in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Jamie Huxtable – 125 offences
Jamie Huxtable
(Image: South Wales Police)
Jamie Huxtable subjected his partner to a brutal and sustained attack which included biting her and beating her with household objects after she turned down his request for birthday sex. The woman suffered a seizure following the assault and spent time in a hospital intensive care unit. Sending Huxtable down a judge told him he treated the woman like a “rag doll” and had then had the gall to claim she was the aggressor and he was the victim. In a statement to the court the woman said she relives what happened to her “almost every day”.
Jamie Huxtable, of Caerphilly Avenue, Bonymaen, Swansea, has 45 convictions for 125 offences the majority of which are dishonesty matters but including inflicting grievous bodily harm, strangulation, and assaults by beating. At the time of the assault on his partner he was subject to a suspended prison sentence for possession of Class C drugs and possession of a bladed article.
James McKenna, for Huxtable, said the defendant’s life had been “utterly blighted” by his use of Class A drugs which had led to him a “revolving door” of committing acquisitive crimes to feed the habit. He said his client wanted to do the 12 Step addiction programme while at HMP Swansea but there was a “substantial waiting list” for the course.
Huxtable was sentenced to seven years in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Ronnie Jacques – 188 offences // Paul Murray – 114 offences
Ronnie Jacques (left) and Paul Murray
“Career criminals” Ronnie Jacques and Paul Murray teamed up for a spree of burglaries spanning the Dulais Valley, Briton Ferry, and Pontardawe which saw bank cards and vehicles stolen. Sending the pair down a judge at Swansea Crown Court said while members of the public were asleep in their beds the pair had been out on the streets “up to no good” and looking for burglary opportunities.
Ronnie Jacques, aged 43, of Roman Road, Banwen, Dulais Valley, has 52 convictions for 188 offences on his record including burglaries, 28 vehicle-takings, dangerous driving, and 31 of driving with no insurance. Paul Murray, aged 41, of HMP Swansea, has 36 convictions for 114 offences including seven house burglaries, fraud by using stolen bank cards, and going equipped.
Stephen Thomas, for Jacques, said following the death of his young daughter the defendant’s drug use and mental health spiralled downwards. He said while in custody the defendant had been taking courses to try to better himself and to equip himself with skills and coping mechanisms for his ultimate release back into the community. Regan Walters, for Murray, said it was accepted his client was a prolific offender who by his own admission had been living a “chaotic life”. He said Murray wanted to address his drink and drug misuse issues and “move on” from the life he had been living.
Jacques was sentenced to five years in prison and Murray to four years. You can read the full court case here.
Christopher Welke – 228 offences
Christopher Welke
(Image: South Wales Police)
In March 2024 Christopher Welke was seen by police carrying out a suspected drugs deal near Neath railway station. He ran off and was found hiding in the yard of a nearby Wetherspoon pub. When the 41-year old was searched he was found with four small bags each containing 10 bromazolam tablets along with boxes of pregabalin tablets..
When Welke’s house in Skewen was subsequently searched officers found scores of boxes of both Class C drugs and in total 1,646 bromazolam and 4,560 pregabalin tablets were recovered, which together were worth more than £8,500 if sold on the streets. A quantity of empty plastic bags and £160 in cash was also found. The defendant had been out of prison for less than two months after being released part-way through a sentence for dealing Valium tablets in Neath’s Victoria Gardens.
Christopher Mario Welke, of Southall Avenue, Skewen, Neath, has 90 convictions for 228 offences including 25 drugs offences between 2001 and 2022 and 147 thefts and other dishonesty matters. Advocate Giles Hayes, for Welke, said the defendant had experienced an abusive and “very difficult” upbringing and said his client’s extensive record of thefts in his younger years had been someone stealing “to get by and to fund his addiction”. He said the defendant had a young child and was trying to break the “vicious cycle” he finds himself trapped in though he said it had to be admitted at the present “he is not making much progress”.
Welke was sentenced to 15 months in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Dean Ley – 176 offences
Dean Ley
(Image: South Wales Police)
Dean Ley scaled scaffolding in the dead of night to break into a flat and steal a large television which he subsequently sold for £100. He was tracked down thanks to an observant neighbour, forensic footwear experts, and a tip-off from police sources.
Dean Ley, aged 56, of High Street, Swansea, has 67 convictions for 176 offences including house burglaries, a dozen non-dwelling or commercial burglaries, possession of bladed articles, robbery, common assault, and criminal damage. In 2017 he was sentenced to two years in prison after befriending a man with learning difficulties who was on a day trip to Swansea and then robbing him of his mobile phone and £40 cash. In 2020 Ley was sentenced to two years in prison for threatening to burn down a block of flats in the city’s St Helen’s Road after claiming that a woman inside had run off with the £20 he had given her for oral sex. While on bail for the arson offence he broke into the Gordon Moore Friends of the Young Disabled – a charity based in the former Cwmfelin works office building on Carmarthen Road which provides support and therapies for youngsters – and trashed a number of rooms and stole items including a television.
Barrister Freddie Lewendon, for Ley, said the defendant was ashamed of his actions and wished to apologise to the owner of the flat and to the court. He said his client had mental health issues and suffered with anxiety and depression for which he was seeking help and said at the time of the offending Ley had bought what he thought were “street Valium” tablets as a form of self-medication only to find the pills contained “other substances”. The barrister added that they were his instructions that upon his release from prison the defendant would like to seek employment.
Ley was sentenced 876 days in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Graham Sypliwtchak – 210 offences
Graham Sypliwtchak
(Image: South Wales Police)
Graham Sypliwtchak broke into a house and trashed the property as he ripped out pipes and radiators looking for copper to steal. The couple who owned the house had re-mortgaged their own home in order to pay for a refurbishment of the property with a view to letting it. New tenants had, in fact, been due to move in to the Neath house in a mater of days.
Graham Sypliwtchak, of Alltywerin, Pontardawe, has 63 convictions for 210 offences including 68 for theft and related matters. He has seven offences for non-dwelling burglaries on his record between 1992 and 1994 and further offences of burglary in 1996, 2013, 2022, and 2023. In 2020 he was jailed for 18 months for dangerous driving after overtaking cars at speed in the Dulais Valley before losing control and plunging off the road into woodland.
Andrew Evans, for Sypliwtchak, said the defendant had reached the “milestone” age of 50 and had “reflected on the path his life has taken”. He said his client had dealt with the “significant adverse childhood experiences” he suffered by self-medicating with alcohol and other substances and had lived most of his adult life “outside normal parameters”. He said there were concerns the defendant had become institutionalised by his numerous custodial sentences but he invited the court to find there was a prospect of rehabilitation.
Sypliwtchak was sentenced to 27 months in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Steven Williams – 123 offences
Steven Williams
(Image: South Wales Police)
Between February and May Steven Williams carried out a spree of shoplifting offences at stores across Swansea city centre in what a judge called a “sustained and brazen campaign” of offending which continued even after he had been arrested and released on bail part-way through. Williams stole more than £2,400 worth of goods during the spree of 27 thefts and attempted thefts taking everything from cheeses and meats to cleaning products and underpants. During a number of the raids he became involved in “aggressive confrontations” with staff including threatening to “punch in” the head of one shop worker.
Steven Williams, of no fixed abode, has 38 convictions for 123 offences including 69 for theft and kindred matters and a robbery in 2012 which saw him sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison. Steve Burnell, for Williams, said the defendant had been struggling to find somewhere to live at the time of the spree following a fire at the hotel where he had been living. He said the defendant “knows his fate” and realised a sentence in the community was not an option.
Williams was sentenced to eight months in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Norman Smith – 131 offences
Norman Smith
(Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
Norman Smith burgled four houses in a day after being granted bail by magistrates follow his arrest and charge for two earlier break-ins. Smith’s advocate told Swansea Crown Court that as a young man his client had received an “education” in burglaries from an uncle who used to take the youngster with him when he went out breaking into houses. Smith stole a haul of items during the burglaries he carried out in Pembroke, Haverfordwest, and Tenby including jewellery of huge sentimental value to a victim. That jewellery has never been recovered.
Norman Smith, aged 45, of Stover Avenue, Sageston, Carew, Pembrokeshire, has 131 offences on his record including 44 house burglaries – the first when he was aged just 14 – as well as robberies, assault, public disorder, possession of a bladed article, and motoring matters. Stuart John, for Smith, said while a psychiatric report before the court had not identified any significant conditions in the defendant beyond mild anxiety disorder it had gone into details about his “very difficult upbringing” and how at a young age he had effectively received an “education” from an uncle who took him along with him while he committed house burglaries,
Smith was sentenced to five years in prison. You can read the full court case here.
Raymond Green – 115 offences // Paul Morgan – 117 offences // Lee Draper – 89 offences
(Left to right) Raymond Green, Paul Morgan and Lee Draper
(Image: South Wales Police)
Burglary gang Raymond Green, Paul Morgan, and Lee Draper were responsible a string of burglaries across Swansea city centre, Swansea Marina, Uplands, Brynmill, and Mumbles. In a statement read to the court one of the victims said the experience of being burgled had had a “lasting and profound effect” on her. She said she had been left suffering with panic attacks, was undergoing counselling, and said she now struggles to sleep and often wakes in the early hours and spends the rest of the night monitoring her CCTV.
Raymond Green, aged 42, of no fixed abode, has convictions for 115 offences including 20 house burglaries and has six times been subject to the mandatory minimum prison sentence as a repeat burglar receiving 995 days imprisonment in 2005, three years in 2009, 876 days in 2011, 876 days in 2015, 42 months in 2015, and three years in 2020. He was released on licence from his last custodial sentence – imposed for burglary and aggravated vehicle-taking in Llanelli – just three months before he started his latest spree. Paul Morgan, aged 40, of New Orchard Street, Swansea, has convictions for 117 offences including three burglaries. Lee Draper, aged 39, of no fixed abode, has convictions for 89 offences house including burglaries and multiple non-dwelling or commercial burglaries.
Andrew Evans, for Green, said the defendant had battled addiction for most of his adult life and had funded it through committing burglaries and he said following his client’s release from his last custodial sentence he had started misusing crack cocaine and had quickly become addicted to that “pernicious” drug. Giles Hayes, for Morgan, said the defendant had struggled to deal with the grief of his mother’s passing in 2022 and had relapsed into drug misuse and criminality. He added that the dad-of-two was “missing his children dearly” while being held on remand but was spending his time in custody productively by mentoring younger inmates. Steve Burnell, for Draper, said the father-of-five had been made homeless a couple of days before he became involved in the offending. He added that his client sees his youngest children “now and again when he is out of custody”.
Green was sentenced five years in prison, Morgan to 30 months, and Draper to 876 days. Green refused to leave his cell for the new sentencing hearing. You can read the full court case here.
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