Pair jailed for Wales hotel thefts
Two men described as"career criminals have been jailed after £26,000 was stolen from two leading North Wales hotels and an attempt made to burgle two more.
Raymond Nolan, 49, of Hartington Road, Liverpool pleaded guilty to stealing £15,000 from the Kinmel Manor Hotel at Abergele and £11,000 from the Bodelwyddan Castle Hotel, a few miles away at Bodelwyddan, last May.
He also admitted attempted burglary at the Waterloo, Betws-y-Coed and the Wild Pheasant Hotel at Llangollen.
Robert Smith, 40, of Pavilion Close, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to the Kinmel Manor burglary and the Wild Pheasant attempt.
Ffion Tomos, prosecuting, described how the burglaries had happened after men had booked in using false details and stolen bank cards.
They had been arrested at Perth in Scotland in June after further alleged offences north of the border.
The judge hearing the case at Caernarfon Crown Court remarked that Nolan had been jailed for five years in 1991 for conspiracy to commit house burglaries and for eight years in 2005 for conspiracy to rob.
In 2004 Smith had been sentenced to ten years for conspiracy to commit robbery and in 2014 got three years for attempting to commit grievous bodily harm.
Jailing Nolan for three years and four months and Smith for two years and eight months the judge said they had been undeterred by previous convictions.
Judge Huw Rees described the pair as career criminals.
"It seems to me you have made it your life's work to commit offences of dishonesty and serious offences at that," he told the pair.
Dealing with the Wild Pheasant attempt the prosecutor said a woman had booked the room and Nolan and Smith moved in after supplying false details. Later they wanted to buy drinks and at 1.30am the night porter spotted them in the kitchen area.
The pair fled but he chased them, though they managed to get away. The hotel had lost £70 because of the fraudulent booking.
After the case Detective Constable Melanie Hughes said: “Nolan and Smith caused a great deal of distress to businesses in the Denbighshire and Conwy areas over a five month period. I am pleased that our investigation has led to their successful conviction and that they have received such lengthy sentences.”
