A TEENAGER has received a suspended prison sentence for burgling a house while he was drunk.

Daniel Richard Twynham, 18, of Glenelg, Tanrallt Road, Gwespyr, admitted breaking into an empty house in the village on April 1.

He also admitted stealing a slide projector, keys, a video camera and a printer.
Matthew Ellis, prosecuting, told Flintshire magistrates: “The detached property is empty and up for sale. The owner returned to check the property on April 3 and discovered glass in the door had been smashed and a number of lager cans strewn across the garden.

“A witness, Bronwen Jones, identified the defendant and told police that she, the defendant and another friend had been drinking on that day and it was the defendant who suggested going to the empty property.

“She knew it was wrong and stayed out of the way.”

Twynham was later arrested and said he did not remember the incident, but he discovered a box containing the stolen items in his house the next morning and accepted he had to have taken them when he was leaving the property.

Huw Roberts, defending, said Twynham had spent two years in the army before returning home.

He started work at a multi-national company managed by his parents, but was later laid off and had started drinking.

The court heard Twynham had four previous convictions, all of them related to alcohol.

Twynham also asked for the theft of eight packets of cigarettes from a house in Prestatyn to be taken into consideration.

Magistrates gave Twynham a three-month prison sentence, suspended for a year and warned him he would face custody if he offended again.

They ordered him to pay £200 compensation towards the cost of repairing the broken door, £41.06 for the cigarettes and £85 court costs.

He was also given a 12-month supervision order and told to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work, as well as 24 days on the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.