A LAMPETER man has admitted stealing £170 worth of electrical goods from a town supermarket and handling two 42-inch televisions stolen from the same store.

A court has heard that, on 22 December last year, Richard David Owen, 47, entered the Co-operative food store in Lampeter and stole several items including portable speakers, two radios, a set of headphones, a USB cable and two sets of electrical hair clippers, with a total value of £171.90.

For the prosecution, Helen Tench said that Owen, of 23 Kingsmead, Lampeter, was seen by staff putting the items in a bag he was carrying and, when challenged, dropped one of the items, a food processor worth £60, but refused to come back into the store and instead drove off in his car with the other items.

After quick-thinking staff took down Owen’s registration number and informed police, officers went to his property where they conducted a search and found none of the stolen goods.

The police did, however, find two 42-inch LG televisions at Owen’s property which had been stolen from the same store sometime between 16 October and 23 December, and which had a value of £999.98.

Mrs Tench said that Owen had changed his story several times during police interviews regarding the televisions, from initially saying he had bought them off the internet to claiming he had bought them off a man called ‘Bob’.

For the defence, Janem Jones told Aberystwyth magistrates the offence was “completely out of character” for Owen, and said he had changed his story because of difficulties he had experienced understanding the police, which stemmed from mental health problems.

Aberystwyth magistrates asked the probation service to prepare a report but sentencing was adjourned for three weeks after the probation officer requested the presence of a mental health nurse while in discussions with Owen.