A MAN went into a Wrexham pub one morning before it opened and rifled through the pockets of a cleaner’s coat.

Michael Kidd, 39, was challenged by a female member of staff and ushered off the premises.

When the CCTV was checked, Kidd, of no fixed abode, was initially seen outside the Cross Foxes pub on April 18 going through wall mounted ash trays looking for cigarette stubs.

He broke of them when he opened them.

Kidd had then entered through an unlocked door and was seen going through the pockets of the coat before being ejected, said prosecutor David Mainstone.

Alun Williams, defending, said when his client was younger his mother had enough of him and sent him to live with his father – in Australia.

His father had a “slightly lax attitude to parenting” and when he returned to the UK he had developed a drugs problem and his life had spiralled out of control to an extent.

He had returned to Australia at one stage but then came back to the UK in 2014 to help care for his mother, who had since sadly passed away.

Kidd went to the Wrexham area where he had an aunt.

He had found himself loitering outside the pub in Abbott Street, was opening ashtrays to get cigarette stubs, and CCTV footage which was played to the court showed that he spent more time trying to repair it than he had causing the damage.

When he was seen inside the pub he was ushered out and left immediately.

Judge Rhys Rowlands jailed him for 30 months after he admitted causing damage and burglary with intent to steal.

The judge said he had seen CCTV which showed him causing the damage and rifling through the coat.

The court heard that initially he claimed he was in the pub to use the toilet.

Interviewed, he said he was looking for a female friend’s coat which had been left there in error and said he was going through the pockets to see if it was the right one.