Two men who stole a car in Chester to travel to North Wales on a 'crime spree' have been jailed.

Carl Mello and Anthony Evans saw the region as a 'soft touch, and stole the car in Chester in order to travel to North Wales to look for potential targets.

Vehicles parked at Chester Zoo, the Talardy Hotel in St Asaph and the retail park at Rhuddlan had been targeted, and strimmers had been stolen from a residential property at Dyserth, and from the Dyserth Falls Resort, all on the same day on August 16 last year.

Mello, 28, of Woodchurch Road in Prenton, Wirral, and Evans, of Lansdown Place in Prenton, were arrested following a police chase.

Both were both on suspended sentences for their involvement in a brawl in a Birkenhead bar in May last year.

Judge Nicolas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, told the pair: “This was a crime spree. You travelled from Merseyside into North Wales no doubt thinking that it was a soft touch. You came in a vehicle that was stolen for the purpose.”

Myles Wilson, for Mello, said his client lost his job as a roofer after his role in the brawl made the pages of the ECHO.

He said Mello had committed the theft offences in order to raise money.

Clare Jones, for Evans, 30, said that he had been making good progress under the suspended sentence and if given an opportunity “would seize it with both hands”.

But the judge said that the offences were so serious that it had to be immediate custody.

Judge Parry jailed Mello for 16 months and Evans for nine months.