'Personal mugshot' man is jailed

A man on the run who sent a newspaper a photo of himself standing in front of a police van has been jailed.

Matthew Maynard, 24, had been living at home with his parents all along, Swansea magistrates were told.

Maynard, of Penlan, Swansea, was jailed for 16 weeks for breaching conditions of a 12-month suspended sentence imposed for handling stolen goods.

He sent the photo to the South Wales Evening Post after it carried a police "mugshot" of him on its front page.

The photo had appeared, along with seven others, as part of a police campaign.

Home visit

But Maynard phoned the newspaper, claiming to be unhappy with the photo used, and sent them one of his own instead.

A week after it appeared on the front page again, he was arrested in Swansea having a haircut at a city barber's shop after officers visited his home for the first time.

Andrew Evans, defending, told the court that Maynard regretted the way he had handled things.

"With hindsight, he acknowledges that he could have dealt with matters in a different way," he said.

"Even though it has been suggested that he kept up a game of cat and mouse with the police, he never left the area.

"It was only on 11 November that the police visited his parents' house, which was where he was all along."