A judge told Terrence O’Connor what he did was “unforgivable”
11:48, 05 Sep 2026
Terrence O’Connor stole more than £200,000 from members of his family(Image: South Wales Police)
A man stole more than £200,000 from members of his own family in an “unforgiveable” act of “betrayal”, a court has heard.
Terrence O’Connor secretly set up online and phone banking facilities for his parents, siblings, and widowed grandfather, and used that access to help himself to their money – including draining his granddad’s entire life savings – over a period of more than five years,
When his offending came to light the defendant skipped the country rather than face the consequences of what he did and fled to Turkey where he lived for almost a year.
Sending O’Connor down, a judge at Swansea Crown Court described him as a “thoroughly dishonest individual” who had betrayed his family, and he described his behaviour as “unforgiveable”.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told the court that O’Connor’s offending was discovered in May 2020 when his grandfather visited his bank in Swansea city centre to withdraw cash only to find that almost all of his £80,000 life savings and pension payments were gone. The bank launched an investigation and found that the money had been paid into the defendant’s parents’ accounts in a series of transactions before being transferred out or used to make online purchases. However, the parents knew nothing about the transactions.
The court heard the parents then confronted their son at his partner’s address in Llansamlet and after a “physical altercation”, the dad found himself in possession of his son’s phone which he handed to the police.
The barrister told the court that O’Connor was arrested in August 2021 and in interview denied any wrongdoing but refused to hand over the PINs and passwords for his devices leading police to a carry out a “lengthy investigation” which included getting access to financial and banking records, and phone subscriber details. During the investigation officers seized phone recordings from banks of O’Connor posing as other family members in order to carry out phone banking transactions on their accounts.
The court heard that once the investigation was complete officers went to arrest O’Connor in May last year but their knocks on the door went unanswered, even though his car was parked outside the property. Four days later O’Connor took a ferry from Dover to France and subsequently travelled to Turkey where he lived for almost a year before flying home in April this year and being arrested at Gatwick Airport. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter
The prosecutor said detectives found that O’Connor had secretly set up online and phone banking facilities on his grandfather’s account, and then used that access to drain a total of £79,659 from the account. It also emerged that the defendant had intercepted mail from the bank during his regular visits to his grandfather’s house in St Thomas in order to keep him in the dark about what was going on with his money.
The investigation also found that O’Connor had likewise used his knowledge of his family members’ personal details to access the accounts of his parents and siblings in order make a series of transfers and purchases, often moving around between people’s accounts to hide what he was doing.
The prosecutor said in total O’Connor stole £79,659 from his grandfather, £84,094 from his parents, £29,353 from his brother, and £8,241 from his sister. The court heard that the grandfather’s bank repaid the money stolen in total, while the brother’s bank repaid half of what was taken from him. The other family members have lost everything. The grandfather has since passed away.
The investigation also led to O’Connor’s then partner, Chelsea Myles, and it emerged she had allowed the defendant to transfer stolen monies into her bank account. Between 2017 and 2020 a total of £42,233 was transferred into Myles’ account by the defendant.
In a family statement which was read to the court by the prosecution barrister, the defendant’s father said what happened had been “very painful and very embarrassing for the family” and said he did not want to spend any more time thinking about what his son had done.
He said: “For what he did to my father and the rest of us, I can never forgive him. We are an honest, hard-working family – he seems happy to take what he can from others around him… What he has done to our family is unforgivable”.
The father said what his son did was not a “one off” but was a conscious choice he made day after day for more than five years, and he said he would “never get over the betray” and said the family “will never be the same again”.
The dad also said his son posted derogatory comments about the family on social media, and had then written to his mother while in prison to apologise. He said: “I do believe he was sorry – but not for us. He is sorry he is in prison. He wasn’t sorry when he was stealing from us every day for five years”.
He added that the defendant is someone who thinks he is cleverer than those around him, and he asked the court to “Teach him a lesson that he cannot just do what he wants to”.
Terrence – known as Terry – O’Connor, aged 33, of Carmel Road, Winch Wen, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and possession of criminal property – namely cash – when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has previous convictions for burglary, going equipped for theft, and handling stolen goods.
Chelsea Myles, aged 26, of Tegfan, Trallwn, Llansamlet, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property – namely cash – when she appeared alongside her co-defendant. She has no previous convictions.
Hywel Davies, for O’Connor, said the defendant’s “best and only mitigation” were his guilty pleas, and he said there could be no mitigation for the offending which was “extreme, targeted, and cruel”. He said the father-of-two had now removed controlled substances from his life, and said he intends to start his own IT business.
Emily Bennett, for Myles, said her client had been 16 when she started a relationship with the defendant and 17 when the money transfers started, and said “naivety” had played its part in the offending. She said Myles works as a carer and is due to meet her employers to discuss her situation.
Judge Huw Res told O’Connor that he was a “thoroughly dishonest individual” who had defrauded members of his own family before adopting a “cowardly stance” when the police become involved and then fleeing the jurisdiction. The judge praised the dignity of the defendant’s family in the face of his “betray”, and told O’Connor: “Your behaviour was unforgivable”.
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas O’Connor was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. He will serve 40 per cent of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
The judge said as far as Myles was concerned, it was clear she had been “under the spell” of her “deeply dishonest” partner, though he noted she had been “hiding things” from the author of the pre-sentence report and could have been “more forthright”.
With a 20 per cent discount for her guilty plea Myles was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and to do 180 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Rees said in the absence of any co-operation from O’Connor, the police investigation was to be commended.
