Sign up to FREE email alerts from NorthWalesLive - Anglesey News Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A judge has questioned the wisdom of the decision to house a chronic alcoholic above a pub.

John Paul Ackerley was sent by the authorities to live in a bed and breakfast above the Imperial Hotel in Rhyl .

He was in court today to admit breaching a criminal behaviour order.

He was spotted on the seafront supping from an open can of ale.

District Judge Gwyn Jones' eyebrows were raised by news of where 56-year-old Ackerley had been sent to live.

He said: "Perhaps the Imperial Hotel is not the most appropriate place to accommodate someone with a problem with drink.”

Andrew Hutchinson, defending at Llandudno court, said Ackerley had been in hospital for alcohol problems.

District Judge Jones extended an eight-week suspended sentence to last for a year. Ackerley must observe a 6pm-6am curfew for a month and pay costs.

He told Ackerley there was a very slim glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but told him it was a "question of whether you want to reach that light".

Ackerley's was not the first case of the authorities housing someone with drink problems above a pub.

In 2017, a court heard that it was 'nonsensical' for a man with a alcohol problems who was being banned from approaching his ex-partner to have been housed above the Kings Arms in Holyhead .

And in 2015, a court heard a robber had "fallen off the wagon" during the time he was sent to live in rooms above the Red Lion in Dyserth , where he could "see and smell drink every day".