By Conor Gogarty

Copyright walesonline

CCTV captured a prolific teen criminal breaking into a supermarket with two members of his “gang” before swaggering around and triggering an alarm that led to their arrest. The footage shows Cody Bond, 18, and his accomplices running amok at Merthyr Tydfil’s Tesco Extra. Bond, who already has 27 offences on his record despite his tender years, treated the supermarket like a “playground” in a burglary at 4am on May 28 after smashing his way through reinforced glass doors using house bricks. He and his friends – who cannot be named because they are 15 – were in possession of a machete, Cardiff Crown Court heard . Store cameras caught the group puffing away on vapes as they helped themselves to food. At one stage Bond went behind a counter and tried to open cupboards containing vapes and cigarettes before picking up a box containing unknown items. Bond then vaulted back over the counter with the box – but it turned out he had triggered an alarm which resulted in smoke pouring into the supermarket, which you can view in the footage at the top of this page. Prosecutor Ieuan Bennett said the three youngsters had turned up at the store, in Beacons Place shopping centre, wearing dark clothing with their hoodies pulled up in “a vain attempt to hide their identities”. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter . They stabbed at the lock on the security doors with a machete before walking away and returning with several bricks. After the trio smashed and kicked their way through the glass one of the youths sustained a wound from the glass leaving blood stains. “Footage shows that after they got inside the defendants were wandering round the shop,” said Mr Bennett. “One put some items in a rucksack. All helped themselves to a small amount of food and drink. It appears nothing of any large value was taken.” Judge Lucy Crowther described Bond’s actions as “appalling”, adding: “You behaved as though you were in some kind of playground, eating and drinking items from the shelves.” After about 15 minutes wandering around the trio left the way they came in only to realise police had surrounded the scene because the alarm had been triggered. They hid by lying behind wheelie bins at the back of the store but police found and arrested them. Bond, of Parc young offender institute in Bridgend , was hunched over in the dock, his eyes to the floor, as CCTV footage of the break-in was played in court. He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and possession of a knife in public. The lengthy previous record of Bond – who started offending aged 14 – includes four offences of ABH assault (actual bodily harm) and three of possessing a knife in public as well as assaulting an emergency worker, shoplifting, and various burglaries and attempted burglaries. His barrister Hywel Davies conceded immediate custody was inevitable, telling the judge: “He straddles between supported accommodation and homelessness. He accepts it is his own offending that has forced him out of the family home and that he can’t be managed in the community either. “He has had a very difficult start to life, becoming involved in poor social groups at a very young age. He has now distanced himself from those groups and engaged in education in custody.” The court heard Bond had received an employment offer from his father, working in removals, which he hoped would be a “turning point in his life” following his release from custody. Judge Crowther took into account that Bond was “part of a gang” and was its eldest member. She also noted the break-in happened while he was under a detention and training order for previous offending. Imposing a sentence of 40 months in a young offender institute she told Bond: “You have let your family down terribly. You have treated them absolutely appallingly. “You were spending time with people you thought in some way glamorous. No doubt it doesn’t seem so glamorous now. You have had many opportunities to reform over the years and you have either been unable or unwilling to accept those opportunities.” The other two defendants were previously sentenced at a youth court. One received a 12-month youth rehabilitation order and the other a nine-month referral order.