R v Michael Hanlon

Facts

The appellant, Michael Hanlon, then aged 45, faced three separate indictments in the Crown Court at Cardiff. The first concerned a theft on 7 February 2025, when he was seen walking along the railway tracks between Danescourt and Llandaf stations in Cardiff, removing coils of copper cabling from bags beside the track and throwing them over a boundary fence; officers found him in adjacent woodland with another man, where cable was being burnt to remove identification markings, and recovered cable cutters, a lump hammer, a hand saw, gloves, electric tape, lighter fluid, a lighter and butane gas. Twenty-five metres of cabling worth £1,312.50 had been taken, and replacement required 18 workers at a cost of £26,000. The second indictment covered the theft of a Volkswagen Sharan worth about £5,000 on about 5 May 2025, an attempted burglary at a Co-Op store in Pontcanna and a burglary at a Co-op store on Pierhead Street where £698 of goods was taken, and a later incident at Davaar House on 22 August 2025 where he shoulder-barged a door and stole residents' parcels. The third concerned two burglaries at Tesco premises on 9 May 2025, one yielding nothing and the other £1,100, with £4,000 of damage. Having pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, he was sentenced on 25 November 2025 by Her Honour Judge Crowther to 51 months' imprisonment in total, and appealed with the limited leave of the single judge.