A TEENAGER stole a bike belonging to an 11-year-old boy after the youngster left it propped up outside a shop.

Unemployed Jake Lloyd, 19, of Church Lane, Haverfordwest, admitted the theft when he appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates Court last week (September 15).

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a conditional discharge he had been sentenced to for an unrelated charge of being drunk and disorderly.

“The school boy cycled to a shop, and went in,” said prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones. “Lloyd was in front of him in the queue. Lloyd went out, jumped on the bike and rode off on it.”

The boy went back in to the shop to ask for help and the Police were called. Officers viewed CCTV footage of the incident and recognised Lloyd, who has previous convictions for dishonesty, theft and burglary.

“Some time later an officer saw the defendant with the bike, but by the time the officer caught up with him he no longer had it,” Mr Pritchard-Jones explained. “But Lloyd cooperated and took the officer to a property in College Court, where the bike was recovered.”

In interview, Lloyd said he “didn’t know why” he’d taken the bike, but admitted he had “had a few to drink”.

Jonathan Webb, defending, said “temptation had got the better of” his client.

“It has transpired he knew the parents of the boy and when he sobered up he would have given it back,” the solicitor added.

Magistrates ordered Lloyd to pay a fine, costs and a surcharge totalling £400.