An Anglesey man admitted that he was responsible for stealing two valuable oil paintings from a Llandudno hotel.

A court heard how the frames had been left secured to the wall.

But the actual art work had been cut out of the frames and taken away in a ruck sack..

Defendant Stephen Johnson, 46, of Bryn Du, Ty Croes on Anglesey, admitted burglary at the Osbourne House Hotel at Llandudno in January.

At Llandudno Magistrates’ Court in October he was previously jailed for a total of 44 weeks.

An appeal against the sentence was allowed at Mold Crown Court today.

Judge Huw Rees, sitting with two magistrates, reduced the sentence to one of four months

He said that the defendant was the beneficiary of a flawed sentence by magistrates who he said should have sent the case to the crown court for sentence.

It was a serious offence by a man with an appalling list of previous convictions, he said.

Magistrates had however given a starting point beyond the maximum, had imposed consecutive sentences and had failed to give sufficient discount for guilty pleas.

Two concurrent four month sentences were imposed instead.

Prosecutor Richard Edwards said that one painting valued at £1,000 had been stolen from a bedroom and £250 worth of damage had been caused to the door when he broke in.

The second painting valued at £1,500 had been stolen from a landing.

The defendant had been seen at the hotel with another man who that day had been asked to leave the premises.

His belongings had been placed in reception and the man, before leaving, was seen on CCTV to be pointing out the upper landing to the defendant.

The CCTV was viewed by a police officer who recognised the defendant and his DNA was found on one of the picture frames.

Mr Edwards told how the frames had been left on the walls but the actual art work had been cut out of the frames using some sort of sharp knife.

Simon Killeen, defending, argued that two consecutive sentence of 20 and 24 weeks was unjust in the circumstances and did not follow accepted sentencing procedures.