A young man branded a career burglar has been jailed for two years following two shed burglaries in Ruthin in which tools to the value of £3,000 were stolen.

Defendant Keiron John Bellis, 26, was cleared of further similar burglaries when the prosecution offered no evidence against him.

He admitted entering a shed in Castle Park and stealing power tools on March 18 and stealing power tools from another shed Greenfield Road between March 21 and 23.

Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, was told that in the early hours of March 18 padlocks on two sheds at Castle Park had been cut and a pair of metal cutters had been left behind.

The defendant's DNA was found upon the cutters.

Tools to the value of £2,000 were taken.

In the early hours of March 22 tools valued at £1,000 had been taken from an unlocked shed in Greenfield Road.

The defendant's finger prints were found on the perimeter fence.

Arrested and interviewed, he denied being involved.

Bellis, who at the time lived at St Peter's Park in Ruthin, had previous convictions for 24 offences including burglaries and in 2013 he received a 28 month sentence of youth custody for a dwelling house burglary.

Jailing him for two years, Judge Parry said that at the age of 26 he could already be described as "a career burglar".

He said the burglaries were pre-planned and targeted which had been committed at night.

Then within a week he twice burgled sheds in the town and took valuable power tools for which there would be a ready market.

"People's property will be protected," the judge said.

The offences were aggravated by his previous convictions and it was so serious that only a significant sentence was now appropriate, he said.

Bellis had originally been charged with 11 offences but admitted two where he had been forensically linked.

The other charges had been adjourned for trial but the prosecution offered no evidence on the other charges.

That occurred after the police received intelligence that others had been responsible, the court was told.