Cleaner guilty of pub thefts

A MAN has been convicted of stealing more than £800 in cash and helping himself to booze and soft drinks from pubs he was supposed to be cleaning.

Peteris Pune-Ozolins was employed by the Whitbread brewery chain to clean kitchens at the Brewers Fayre Sandpiper pub in Llanelli and the Bagle Brook Beefeater in Port Talbot.

At Llanelli Magistrates’ Court, he was sentenced after pleading guilty at a weekend remand court held at the court.

At that first hearing, Pune-Ozolins, a Latvian national, pleaded guilty to swiping £520 from a gambling machine and charity boxes at the Sandpiper on October 1, last year.

This was followed by £310 from the Bagle Brook Beefeater the next day - again from charity boxes and stole three boxes of spirits worth £20 each.

Pune-Ozolins, aged 27, from Didcot in Oxfordshire, also pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to a gambling machine at the Cross Hands Beefeater pub, Cheltenham.

The sentencing hearing was told Pune-Ozolins had been acting with others in the crime spree and while he pleaded guilty, he disputed the amount of cash the prosecution stated was stolen.

Pune-Ozolins was given a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. He must also carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and pay compensation of £830 to Whitbread.

He was also ordered to pay £85 court costs and £115 victim surcharge.