A NEWPORT father was sentenced to three years imprisonment after pleading guilty to theft and fraud concerning vehicles worth more than £90,000.

The string of offences took place from April to July of this year and concerned vehicles bought on finance from various car dealerships.

Phillip Coates, 24, of Bessemer Close Malpas, pleaded guilty to a total of 17 counts against him and was sentenced in Cardiff Crown court on Wednesday.

The estimated value of the vehicles concerned in the case was £91,983. Vehicles were bought on finance from a number of car supermarkets including Motorpoint and Carcraft in Newport.

The court heard how Coates swapped the vehicles with other car owners around the UK via a car swap website or simply sold them on, which he told police on one occasion was to pay off drug debts. Cars were often sold for well under their market value price.

The court heard how another woman involved had bought cars on finance and reported it stolen, when in fact Coates had taken it and sold or exchanged it in a swap deal.

On a number of these deals, Coates used an identity of Ryan Davies and provided false documentation, so the people on the receiving end of the deals had no knowledge the cars were stolen.

All the vehicles have since been recovered and returned to their original owners, although people involved further down the chain have still missed out.

Coates pleaded guilty to 17 counts- 16 relating to dishonesty by fraud and theft and the 17th- to perverting the course of justice.

The judge called the defendants 22 previous offences an aggravating feature to the case as well as the amount of people affected by his actions.

The defence asked the judge to consider Coates age and early pleas when sentencing, adding that his client was extremely sorry.

Coates was sentenced to two years and three months for the charges relating to dishonesty and a further three month consecutive sentence was received for perverting the course of justice bringing the total sentence to three years. A member of the public gallery blew a kiss to Coates as he was escorted from the dock.