A man who saved tens of thousands of pounds from selling The Big Issue magazine for the homeless was battered to death by his flatmate.

However, Wayne Aird, 30, said his motive for murdering 37-year-old biology graduate Tim Pincott was not to get the victim's money.

Swansea Crown Court heard Mr Pincott had accumulated large amounts of money from selling the magazine in Cardiff over three years.

He started selling it in 1995 and by September 1998, had £47,000 in his bank account and Tessa savings of £10,000.



At the time of the murder, his savings account stood at £36,000.

'Motive was jealousy'

Admitting murder, unemployed Aird said his motive was jealousy. He said he and Mr Pincott were gay lovers and he had taken revenge after Mr Pincott started seeing someone else.

Aird shared a flat with the victim in Lichfield Court, Cardiff.

Jane McDonald, prosecuting, said the pair went to a beach at Rhoose, near Cardiff, in June last year, where Aird battered Mr Pincott to death with a stone and then dragged his body into salt marshes.

A police investigation was launched after Mr Pincott's decomposed body was discovered in the sea on July 2. Aird was traced and arrested on July 7 for murder.

Killer withdrew cash

Mrs McDonald said the dead man was not homosexual and had started seeing a woman in Nottingham.

The court was told Aird had taken money from Mr Pincott's account following his death.

After the murder, Aird left Cardiff and made numerous withdrawals from Mr Pincott's account using his bank cards. In all he took £5,000 and spent it on travel and presents for his friends.

Pair 'shared environmental concerns'

John Rees, defending, said both men were Big Issue sellers and Aird had taken money which he thought was rightfully his.

The court heard that Pincott, a graduate in applied biology from Cardiff University, had a number of jobs before he came back to Cardiff in the early 1990s and began selling The Big Issue at the end of 1995.

Mrs McDonald said Pincott had an interest in environmental causes and this may have been an interest he shared with Aird.

Aird nodded as he was sentenced to life in prison.

Diet of soup

A spokeswoman for the Big Issue Cymru has revealed how Mr Pincott managed to save a small fortune by selling the magazine.

Director Sue West said he did not drink or smoke and lived on a diet of free soup.

"Tim would be out selling from 8am to 8pm every day and would buy 100 copies at a time to sell," said Mrs West.

She said she was "amazed" by the amount the murder victim had saved in two years but said it was quite possible.

"If anybody was making money like that we would take their vendor badge because there are more worthy people who needed it," Mrs West added.