A scammer travelled 300 miles with other fraudsters from London to defraud country house hotels in North Wales of £18,000 using card machines to process refunds, a court heard.

Abdullahi Jamma, aged 25, of Common Lane, London, was jailed for 18 months after admitting conspiring to commit fraud.

Four months of a suspended sentence was also activated, to run consecutively.

Judge Timothy Petts at Caernarfon crown court said in March last year a group of four visited hotels, hoping to catch night staff off their guard.

Prosecutor Laura Knightly said in the early hours they had gone to Bodysgallen Hall Hotel at Llandudno.

They then went to Tre-Ysgawen Hall in Anglesey where a card machine was picked up by one of the group and refunds made.

The lawyer said at 3am police saw a hired Mercedes with Jamma inside. Its black-box showed the car had stopped at the hotels.

Justin Hugheston-Roberts, defending, said two other defendants had been jailed and Jamma understood there could be no difference in his case. He was anxious to start afresh.