A brazen pair feasted on food and drink at restaurants before making off without paying during what a magistrate branded a “crime spree”.

Lee Terence Jones, 32, and Ian Christopher Jones, 34, even boasted on Facebook, taking photos of the “free food” at Frankie and Benny’s in Wrexham on January 9.

Sheyanne Lee, prosecuting at Wrexham Magistrates Court, said the pair went with two other people to the Chinese Buffet on Lord Street on January 6.

They had food worth £260 between them, the two others left but Lee and Ian Jones stayed.

Lee Jones, of no fixed abode, left to go for a cigarette – leaving behind a jacket containing his bank card – but failed to return, so the manager was told to use the card, which was declined.

He told the manager that he would return the next day, but did not.

On January 9 the men had food and drink worth £57.80 at Frankie and Benny’s in Eagles Meadow, posting about the incident on Facebook, before eating £150 worth of food at the chain’s Plas Coch restaurant later that day and again not paying.

Magistrates heard how on January 16 two women called police to report two men who had invited them to the China Star in Rhostyllen, and offered to pay the £240 bill, had run off.

The two men walked into Beechley Service Station in Wrexham on January 10 and walked out with a crate of beer each worth £21.98, and two more from a Brymbo convenience store on January 17, this time worth £20.

They went to Bersham Social Club on January 11 where one of them said they would not pay for the drinks they had been served, but that someone named Becky would.

He then took more alcohol from the taps, the court heard.

Both customers confronted others during the incident, Miss Lee said. A bar worker had told how Ian Jones was aggressive, agitated and looking for a fight.

The bar worker told how she shouted at them to stop when she saw them helping themselves to drinks.

They took £20 of alcohol.

Miss Lee said the men went to Wrexham Police Station shortly before 10pm on January 17 and asked to be arrested.

A sergeant heard a bang and turned round to see Lee Jones swinging a police vehicle warning sign around, with another on the floor.

Jones shrugged, dropped the sign and when asked, said: “I did it and loved every minute of it.”

Ian Jones also pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen for analysis after police found him at Cefn y Bedd in the driver seat of a white Peugeot van, which had hit a road sign and a telegraph pole.

He struggled to stand and denied being the driver, who he said was “some other lad”, and refused to take breathalyser samples at the scene and in custody.

He also admitted failing to attend a previous court date, and indicated in interview that he had been too busy drinking, Miss Lee added.

Both men, who appeared in custody, pleaded guilty to making off without payment, theft and one count of using threatening and abusive words and behaviour.

Lee Jones also pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage.

He had been sentenced to 26 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, on January 3 for attacking a teenager outside the Attik nightclub on December 22.

Justine McVitie, defending, said: “He is the first to concede that there is a certain inevitability to the outcome of proceedings today.”

Lee Jones did not wish to waste the court’s time and fully accepted that activating the suspended sentence was justified.

The question was how long the sentence should be, Miss McVitie said.

Ian Jones was perhaps slightly different as he had not been before the court for some four years, during which time he had worked as a plumber and got married.

But as a result of a relationship breakdown Ian Jones, who is currently unemployed, went on the spree that magistrates had heard about, Miss McVitie said.

They were not sophisticated offences – Lee Jones had left his coat at one of the restaurants, and the two had been on Facebook on another occasion.

The best mitigation she could offer for the pair were their guilty pleas, Miss McVitie said.

Magistrates chairman Carol Lloyd said she could only describe the offences as a crime spree, and the pair had given no thought to the livelihoods of those they had stolen from.

Ian Jones was sentenced to a total of 26 weeks, suspended for two years and must pay £85 in prosecution costs and a £115 surcharge.

Magistrates activated Lee Jones’ suspended sentence and added a further 26 weeks to bring the total to a year.

Both men must pay half of the compensation to the various establishments

As he was led away by custody officers, Lee Jones said the sentence was “belting” and that he “couldn’t be happier”.