Judge criticises “long and inexcusable delay” as Saundersfoot man is jailed for 27 months

A COCAINE dealer who tried to conceal drugs in his underwear was caught with a high-purity stash worth more than £11,000, a court heard.

Thomas Groves, 37, of Whitlow, Saundersfoot, was arrested after police stopped his car in Carmarthen on Friday, April 8, 2022.

Prosecutor Sian Cutter told Swansea Crown Court officers searched the vehicle and seized Groves’s phone. During a further search, police found a bag of white powder hidden in his underwear.

Testing showed it contained 19.5g of cocaine at 75% purity, with an estimated street value of £11,400.

Judge Paul Thomas KC criticised Dyfed-Powys Police for what he called a “long and inexcusable delay” in bringing the case to court.

The judge noted that part of the delay was caused by Groves refusing to provide the PIN for his phone, but said the police also bore responsibility because of their “tardiness”. Ms Cutter apologised to the court for the time the case had taken.

Groves pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine. He has one previous conviction, for drink-driving in 2010.

Defence barrister Emily Bennett said Groves had recently become a father, after his partner gave birth two months ago. The court heard he was working as a supervisor at Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset and was well regarded.

Ms Bennett said Groves was a cocaine user at the time of the offence and had been supplying friends. She added: “The defendant knows he faces a custodial sentence today… This will be his first experience of custody.”

Sentencing him, Judge Thomas said the delay would be reflected in the final term. Groves was jailed for 27 months and will serve half in custody before being released on licence.

He is due to face a proceeds of crime hearing in May.

A 65-YEAR-OLD man who admitted stealing more than £27,000 from a registered charity has been given a suspended prison sentence after appearing at Crown Court on Thursday (Jan 15).

Howard Davies, of Carmarthen, pleaded guilty to defrauding Llanddarog and District Agricultural Society while acting as its treasurer. The court heard the offending took place between July 2018 and February 2024, with Davies admitting stealing £27,552.

Davies attended court aware that a custodial sentence was a likely outcome, and it was noted he arrived with a packed bag, indicating he expected to be sent to prison.

In mitigation, his barrister said Davies did not seek to minimise the seriousness of the offence and described his behaviour as “out of character”. The court was told his wife only became aware of the fraud after police became involved.

The defence also told the court a cheque had been prepared to repay the charity’s committee members, but said Davies had been unable to hand it over earlier because his bail conditions prevented him from contacting them.

“There is no reason why he could give the cheque today,” His Honour Judge Geraint Walters said.

The judge was highly critical of Davies’ conduct, describing him as a “crook and fraudster”. The offence was assessed as a Category 3A case.

After applying full credit for an early guilty plea — resulting in a one-third reduction — the court imposed a sentence of 22 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years. Davies was also ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid unpaid work in the community.

Davies had previously appeared at Llanelli Magistrates’ Court in December, where he admitted fraud by abuse of position. The case was then committed to Swansea Crown Court for sentence.

A TEN-YEAR-old is too young to leave the school gates without a parent’s permission, let alone cast a ballot. They can’t work a paper round, open a bank account or see a 12A film without an adult. They are, in almost every sense, dependent on the grown-ups around them.

Yet, the moment they cross a certain line – that protective bubble vanishes. Under current law, a child still in primary school is considered mature enough to stand in a dock, be questioned under caution and carry a criminal record that could follow them for decades.

This paradox was at the heart of a Senedd debate on Wednesday (January 14) as Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from ten to 14.

He told the Welsh Parliament: “A child still in primary school can be arrested, questioned under caution, prosecuted, convicted, and marked, sometimes for years, by an encounter with the criminal courts. I believe we should raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

“That’s not to be soft on crime, as some would see it – it’s to be smart on crime, clear-eyed, with a hard-headed focus on what the evidence tells us.”

He warned: “The evidence is all in one direction: criminalising ten, 11, 12 and 13-year-olds is to create a conveyor belt of future crime, pulling children deeper into the system, widening the net, turning one incident into the beginning of a longer offending career.”

The former Plaid Cymru leader criticised the “crude” current threshold, saying: “The age of criminal responsibility is not just a number, it’s a line that determines whether we treat a child primarily as a child who needs help or an offender to be processed.

Mr Price pointed out that the doctrine of “doli incapax” – which presumed children aged ten to 13 were incapable of criminal intent unless proven otherwise – was abolished in 1998.

Warning of an incoherent and unfair system, he said: “Nothing better replaced it. So, now we have the worst of both worlds – a very low threshold with none of the old protections.”

He added: “As long as the legal age for criminal responsibility stays at ten, that… creates a constant pull towards court when what a child actually needs is something else: protection, support, supervision, help with mental health and, where necessary, secure care.”

Mr Price stressed early intervention does not require early criminalisation. “This is not an argument for doing nothing,” he said. “It’s an argument for doing the right thing.”

A 2023 inquiry by the Senedd’s equality committee highlighted a hidden crisis: at least 60% of young people in the justice system have a speech, language or communication need.

“Think about what that means,” said Mr Price. “It affects whether a child understands the police caution, whether they can tell their story clearly, whether they can follow what’s happening in court, take instructions, understand consequences or engage with anything designed to change their behavior.”

The MP-turned-Senedd Member added: “Sometimes, the most serious harm by children is tangled up with exploitation. Children can be groomed into offending, coerced, threatened, controlled by older criminals. When that happens, a purely punitive response misses the point. It treats the exploited child as the problem rather than as a child in danger.”

Rhian Croke, a human rights expert at the Children’s Legal Centre Wales, has warned of a “glaring contradiction” within the Wales and England legal system.

She wrote: “This legal mismatch is not just technical – it reflects a deeper inconsistency…. On the one hand, we delay rights like voting, full medical consent or signing contracts until 16 or 18. On the other, we impose adult-like punishments on children still in primary school.”

Dr Croke pointed out that the age of criminal responsibility in Wales is the lowest in Europe. This means children can be interviewed, detained, subject to strip searches, prosecuted, sentenced and given a criminal record that follows them into adulthood.

Warning Wales and England is an international outlier, she said: “Further afield, it may be interesting to learn the minimum age of criminal responsibility is higher in China and Russia.”

Dr Croke cautioned that criminalising children as young as ten can cause significant and lasting harm as well as make reoffending more likely – not less.

Jane Hutt, Wales’ social justice secretary, stressed that while the Senedd can debate the issue – the power to change the law remains locked in Westminster.

Reiterating calls for powers over youth justice, she committed to raising the issue during a forthcoming meeting with Jake Richards, the UK youth justice minister.

Ms Hutt told the Welsh Parliament: “I’m very conscious of the extensive evidence in favour of raising the age of criminal responsibility.”

In 2019, John Thomas – the ex-head of the judiciary – led a commission on justice in Wales, which recommended raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 12.

Scotland raised the age to 12 in 2021. The United Nations has urged the UK Government to raise the age to 14 in Wales and England but Westminster has resisted the calls.