South Wales Police detective inspector Dave Peart (Image: Adrian White Photography) The detective likened it to doing a jigsaw without the picture on the lid - and with a couple of pieces from other jigsaws thrown in just to confuse matters. South Wales Police detective inspector Dave Peart said it was not the kind of case where detectives were able to find one major piece of evidence - a "golden nugget" - which sealed the case and identified all those responsible, but rather it involved collecting a host of small pieces of evidence and intelligence which had to be fitted together. It was to be a painstaking investigation which would last some three years. Operation Timmia was launched to track down and catch what police believed to be the organised crime group behind the burglaries. By the time the spree was eventually ended, more than 150 homes across south Wales from Llanelli to Porthcawl and Maesteg had been burgled in a similar way.
The police had seen a handful of similar burglaries in previous years but this was something more concentrated. And they were successful in every single instance. They were professional jobs carried out by small gangs of masked men who drove to their targets in cars, and who knew what they were looking for - gold jewellery and money. But the burglaries in this spree were markedly different. Many such burglaries are committed by drug users to fund a habit. They weren't the kind of break-ins police routinely deal with, which are often opportunist crimes where a burglar takes advantage of an unlocked door or window to gain entry to a property looking to steal anything that can be quickly sold for cash. In early 2018 a spate of burglaries happened across Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot. This is the story of how the police did it. South Wales Police's Operation Timmia was one of the largest and most complex of its type ever seen, and would eventually result in eight members of the gang being jailed for a total of almost 47 years. But they weren't smart enough - the police were on to them. And they were smart - they were in and out of the houses in minutes, and left very few forensic clues.
They were ruthless - they smashed their way into homes, regardless of whether their victims were home or not, and stole only jewellery and cash. They were prepared - they had carried out surveillance on their targets. For more than six months a family crime firm brought misery to families across south Wales by burgling scores of homes, and stealing jewellery worth around half-a-million pounds.
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