**Cat Flap Blunder Leads to Capture of Prolific Burglar in West Wales**
A seasoned burglar who believed he had meticulously concealed his traces during a spree of break-ins across West Wales was ultimately undone by a seemingly innocuous detail—a cat flap. Ryan Thomas, a 30-year-old with an extensive criminal record, was caught after he left his fingerprints behind on a cat flap at a property he had broken into, Swansea Crown Court has heard.
Thomas’s crime spree unfolded in the early hours of 31 March 2023, when he travelled from his home in Merthyr Vale to Llandovery. There, he gained entry to a house on Broad Street, making off with car keys, a box of Budweiser beers, and the homeowner’s Toyota Yaris. Unbeknownst to the victim, the theft had taken place while she slept, and Thomas wasted no time before putting the stolen vehicle to use.
He next drove to Llandybie, where he targeted another home on Ammanford Road. After breaking in, he took the keys to a Volvo S80 and made a swift getaway with the car. Investigators later learnt that he used this vehicle in a ramraid at the Petro Express garage in Glanaman. During the raid, Thomas used the Volvo to inflict severe damage on the shop’s shutters before entering the premises, his hands covered with plastic bags in an attempt to avoid leaving traces.
Inside the targeted garage, he seized alcohol and cigarettes valued at around £5,000, along with cash from the till, before escaping in the battered Volvo. After fleeing the scene, Thomas drove the vehicle to Swansea, where he ultimately set it alight and abandoned it in an effort to destroy evidence.
However, this string of audacious crimes began to unravel thanks to diligent police work and the overlooked cat flap. Forensic investigators meticulously combed the scene at the Llandovery house and lifted Thomas’s fingerprints from the flap, which he had used to reach the interior door handle. This vital clue provided a direct link to the culprit. Further evidence included his prints discovered on the bottles of beer left in the abandoned Yaris, just a short distance from the second burglary. Adding to the mounting case, video doorbell footage captured Thomas entering the hallway during the Ammanford Road burglary, while a fragment of the Volvo’s number plate was found at the site of the ramraid.
By the time Thomas was formally named as a suspect, he was already serving a separate prison sentence at HMP Parc, related to another burglary in which he and an accomplice used force to break into Maesycwmmer Stores in Caerphilly, stealing thousands of pounds of tobacco and e-cigarettes before leading police on a high-speed chase. Court proceedings outlined the challenges police faced in questioning Thomas, who delayed co-operating for over a year and responded “no comment” to every question posed, further complicating the investigation.
Thomas has a lengthy criminal background, with past convictions totalling 54 offences, many of which involve various forms of burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, and violent behaviour. His legal representative, Hywel Davies, told the court that delays by authorities in both interviewing and charging his client contributed to the drawn-out nature of the proceedings. Davies also stated that Thomas had been engaging in self-improvement courses whilst in custody and retained hopes of rebuilding his relationship with his young daughter upon eventual release.
Recorder Christopher Felstead credited Thomas’s guilty pleas by granting him a sentence reduction, eventually ordering him to serve 31 months in prison. Thomas will be eligible for release on licence after completing up to half his sentence behind bars, after which he will remain subject to monitoring in the community for the remainder of his term. Additionally, Thomas received a five-year and three-month driving ban, and must pass an extended test before regaining the right to drive.
This case highlights not only the inventive efforts criminals often take to cover their tracks but also the persistent and methodical work of forensic teams in bringing perpetrators to justice. In Thomas’s case, it was an overlooked cat flap that ensured his eventual downfall, demonstrating that even the smallest detail can make all the difference in complex investigations.