A 36-year-old man from Pennar has been told by a District Judge that his own future is up to himself.

Michael Paul Davies, of Cross Park, appeared before Judge Vivian Manning-Davies at Haverfordwest magistrates court on Tuesday charged with two counts of theft and a burglary.

Prosecutor Ellie Morgan explained that Mr. Davies stole various toiletries from the 99p Store in Haverfordwest's Castle Square on June 11, with CCTV footage showing the defendant putting items into his rucksack, leading to his arrest.

On August 17, Mr. Davies was again caught on CCTV at Pennar Post Office slipping food items into his trousers and jacket.

Mr. Davies, who was described as being worse for wear, by the officer on the scene, put up a struggle when he was arrested, leading to back-up being called.

Two days after the incident, Mr. Davies again stole items from a property in Pembroke, taking power tools and a lawn mower from a shed.

The prosecution told Judge Manning-Davies that the defendant had committed 13 offences of shoplifting just this year alone.

The Judge also heard from a probation officer who had been working with Mr. Davies to rehabilitate him, and explained that the defendant was now on his final warning as he had missed two recent appointments.

Despite this, however, the officer did tell the Judge that Mr. Davies had shown signs of improvement by going a two-week period when he was abstinent from alcohol.

A police officer who was also helping the defendant as part of a multi-agency programme called the Cleddau Project, also told Judge Manning-Davies that Mr. Davies's offending had come down since he had been a part of the programme and he had not offended since a tag had been placed on him after the most recent burglary.

His solicitor, Mark Layton, said that drink had played a feature in almost all of his client's offending and that he had a long-term chronic drink problem, but hoped that he had turned a corner based on the fact that he had gone the last month without offending.

Judge Manning-Davies said that this was a "very unusual case" and that he had just about been persuaded by the support shown to Mr. Davies to give him a chance.

He deferred sentence and ordered the defendant to fully comply with the community order that he was under and that he must not break any of the conditions of the order between now and November 20, when Judge Manning-Davies would revisit the case.