Three men from London stole £1,300 worth of alcohol from Morrisons in Newtown en route to Cardiff, a court heard.

The chair of the magistrates’ bench, Vincent Howells, said: “If you’re travelling from London to Cardiff, why on earth would you go to Newtown? There’s a road called the M4.”

The three men admitted stealing the bottles of whiskey and brandy. They were each given a 12-month suspended sentence.

The men were Mihai Aurel Ion, 34, of Guildford Road, London, Nicolae-Valentin Pintilie, 30, of Eustace Road, East Ham, and Gabriel-Iulian Zidaru, 29, also of Eustace Road.

Helen Tench, prosecuting, said on June 19, all three of the men were seen on CCTV “working as a team”.

One of the men was taking bottles of alcohol from display and putting them in a bag for life, and “concealed the items with other groceries”.

Morrisons was unaware that the items had been stolen, the court heard.

It was when the police stopped a car from driving “suspiciously” that the bottles of alcohol were found, magistrates heard.

There were 52 bottles of brandy and whisky in the car, worth £1,299.50.

When the men where interviewed, they denied that they had stolen the alcohol and that they had even been in Newtown or in the supermarket.

Ms Tench said they “deliberately travelled from outside the area”.

Owain Jones, defending, said that the men should be credited for their early guilty pleas and that they had arrived and given addresses.

The court heard that the men don’t have extensive previous records and that two of the defendants have been living in the UK for a number of years.

A probation report heard that the men were travelling from London to Cardiff for work, and that they planned to sell the alcohol so that they could pay for accommodation.

Mr Howells, said: “There are some concerning elements to this case.” He said that the men acted together and travelled to commit the crime. However, he said: “If you’re travelling for London to Cardiff where on earth would you go to Newtown? There’s a road called the M4”.

He said that going to Newtown would add “significant additional miles” to the journey.

Magistrates gave each of the men a 12 month suspended sentence, so if they committed another crime within a year they could go to prison. The defendants were also given a community order of 200 hours of unpaid work and told to pay costs of £200.