Leeds men who ‘wreaked havoc’ stealing motorbikes caught after posting pictures on Facebook and Snapchat

Connor Amps, 23, of Shakespeare Gardens, and Morgan Kershaw, 20, of Hilda’s Place in Cross Green, were jailed for 33 and 18 months respectively at Leeds Crown Court yesterday (Thursday). Amps had pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and one count of robbery while Kershaw pleaded guilty to three counts of theft.

For the prosecution, Jade Edwards explained that the thefts took place between June and July last year. The first incident only involved Amps, who with two other men stole a motorbike from Victoria Gate car park. The bike was later found in a shed at Amps’s home.

The second incident involved both defendants stealing a motorcycle worth £8,500 from a city centre car park. The theft was caught on CCTV and the defendant’s were later identified because the clothes they wore were the same ones that they were wearing in a TikTok video. The motorcycle was later recovered but “extensive damage” had been caused.

On June 27, both defendants stole a bike from outside Leeds College of Building that belonged to one of the lecturers. A 58-year-old female member of security staff was called and approached the two men, who were wearing balaclavas, but was threatened by Amps, who told her: “What are you going to do? Come any closer and I will smash your f***ing face in.”

The woman didn’t challenge them any further and they took the bike in broad daylight, with the bike later found damaged.

Then on June 28, the two men stole a £7,500 Yamaha bike from a man who had purchased it just a week prior. The man stopped off in a pub and when he went out again for a cigarette he saw the two had taken his bike and helmet. Both defendants would go on to post pictures of themselves on the bike on Facebook.

Amps also stole a bike from the garage of a home in Harrogate on July 27 while the resident was home.

In mitigation, both defendants’ barristers said that the two men were responsible for their own actions. Amps’s barrister Adrian Pollard said: “He is the author of his own misfortune”. He went on to say that Amps had a “disrupted” upbringing and was a care giver to his mother, though this was disputed.

Representing Kershaw, Matthew Stewart said that his client had an unstable upbringing and has no contact with his parents. When asked why the defendant had done the crimes, Mr Stewart pointed to “stupidity” and having “no father figure”.

It was also shared that both men, who had previous convictions of thefts carried out together, are set to become fathers for the first time in the coming months.

Sentencing the two men, His Honour Judge Ray Singh said: “For two months you wreaked havoc on people who owned motorcycles. These are extremely serious offences and not simply offences committed out of boredom. They were planned.”

On how the two men posted pictures of themselves with the bikes on social media, Judge Singh said: “You were as brazen as brass.”

Kershaw was sentenced to 18 months in a young offender’s institute while Amps was jailed for 31 months.