A crime gang member who stole luxury cars from driveways after burgling people’s homes has received a prison term for absconding from the UK during his trial.
Miles Bishop, 35, was among a group of five people who broke into three properties in Chepstow , Monmouthshire , and Peterson-super-Ely, in Vale of Glamorgan .
The gang took the keys to a Mercedes convertible worth £20,000 and an Audi TT and Volkswagen Jetta worth £10,000 each.
Among the items taken from the properties included jewellery, cash, a Faberge egg and an MBE medal.
Convicted luxury car thief jailed after more than a year on the run
The group were captured on CCTV driving the stolen vehicles and were arrested by police.
Following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court on 2017, Bishop’s fellow gang members Robert Coulson, Gareth Elliott, Steven Gorry and Geni Dragjoshi, were jailed.
But Bishop, of Newport , absconded during the trial and was on the run for more than a year until he was discovered and brought back to to the UK in March this year by officers from Gwent Police.
During that time, he had flown to Dubai where he was arrested and jailed for three months for theft.
Upon his release he travelled to Moscow, before an extradition process could be started, and then went on to Malaga where he was later detained on a European Arrest Warrant.
When he was brought back to Cardiff Crown Court on March 21, he was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to deal cars in the original trial.
Coulson, 43, was sentenced to nine years in prison; Gorry, 31, was sentenced to seven years; Elliott, 38, to two years, and Dragjoshi, 30, to 12 months.
At another hearing on Monday, April 1, Bishop pleaded guilty to failure to surrender.
Representing himself, the defendant claimed he had been advised by his previous lawyers to abscond in the hope of a re-trial or an appeal.
Sentencing, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said: "You became an international fugitive and you were arrested after a huge amount of time and effort had been made to trace you around the world until you were brought back before this court.
Bishop, of Pillmawr Circle, Newport, was sentenced to six months imprisonment, to run consecutive with his current sentenced of seven years.
