A BURGLAR caught asleep at the bar after breaking into a restaurant is spending Christmas behind bars for breaking into supermarket and stealing a bottle of whisky.

Sam Mulligan from Newport is a thief with a history of breaking into businesses.

He was jailed in December 2021 after a burglary at Latin American restaurant Las Iguanas in Cardiff

He was arrested after astounded staff opened for the day only to find him passed out at the chain’s Mill Lane venue in the capital city.

Mulligan had helped himself to spirits before passing out.

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The 33-year-old has just been imprisoned after he admitted a burglary at a Tesco store in Newport where he stole a £20.75 bottle of Glenfiddich.

At the city’s magistrates’ court, the defendant, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to stealing the whisky earlier this month.

He also admitted two counts of the theft of chocolate from a Spar.

The offences were committed between October 30 and November 10.

He was also in breach of a suspended prison sentence for similar offences.

Mulligan was jailed for 26 weeks.