A MAN from Holyhead who stole gin, chocolate, nail varnish and a mobile phone from a woman’s home in Dyserth has been spared jail despite breaching his suspended sentence.

Daniel Hayes, 36, of Cae Dafydd, Bryngwran, was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Caernarfon Crown Court last September.

He was also ordered to complete 200 hours’ unpaid work, 10 days’ rehabilitation activity requirements, and 35 “thinking skills” sessions.

But today (August 15), Hayes returned to Caernarfon Crown Court (sitting at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court) after missing an unpaid work appointment on July 1.

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Hayes, who works as a chef in a kitchen in Llandudno, admitted the breach during today’s hearing.

Barrister Richard Edwards told the court that Hayes had been called into work that day, as the kitchen was “short-staffed”.

He was “trying to prioritise his work and his family,” Mr Edwards said, and “didn’t want to jeopardise his position with his work and his son”.

Hayes had contacted the charity shop, where he has been doing unpaid work, about his absence, but not the probation service.

In total, he has undertaken 112 of the 200 hours of unpaid work he was assigned, and has completed the “thinking skills” programme.

Mr Edwards said Hayes is “in a very different place now to that which he was in at the commission of the offence for which he was sentenced”.

He said Hayes has “demonstrably turned his life around”, and added that his breach has been “a bit of an eye-opener” for him.

Judge Huw Rees, presiding over the hearing, told Hayes he was “foolish” not to have informed the probation service.

Hayes was ordered to complete 30 more hours of unpaid work, and four additional rehabilitation activity requirement days.

“There are some very positive features in your life at the moment, “Judge Rees told Hayes.

“You’re hard working, and you’ve settled down much more than you did about a year ago.

“Nobody wants to send you to prison as such, but if you’re not doing the order, the court has to consider that.

“I think the reality of this case has dawned upon you. You’ve jeopardised your position; I’m now giving you a chance to rectify it.”