Waking up on a stranger’s sofa in his underwear after a boozy night out cost a Fishguard man £503 and left him ‘deeply chastened’, when the frightened householder called the police.

Swanny McCarthy, 43, of West Street, pleaded guilty to criminal damage when he appeared before Haverfordwest magistrates on Tuesday (September 12).

The court heard that Rachel Thomson woke up and went downstairs to find McCarthy fast asleep under a blanket on her sofa, wearing only his boxer shorts and a vest on August 26.

When asked what he was doing in her house he replied: “I’m your son”, but he could not say where his clothes were.

Prosecuting, Vaughan Pritchard-Jones, said: “Clearly he is not her son, and she rang the police.”

He added that Mrs Thomson was ‘obviously surprised and distressed’ to find him there, but he remained at the scene without causing any problems until the police arrived.

It was later discovered that the cottage’s garage door had been smashed open, and McCarthy’s clothes were found under a mess of items he had broken and thrown around inside.

Mr Prichard-Jones told the bench that there did not seem to be any dishonest intention, but a case of a man getting ‘hopelessly drunk’.

He said: “It seems that the defendant took his clothes off there and then walked into the house through an interior door that was not locked.”

Mike Kelleher, defending, told the bench that McCarthy wanted to ‘sincerely apologise’ to Mrs Thomson, but bail conditions had stopped him from contacting her.

“He has huge empathy for her and realises how frightening it must have been to find someone she did not know in her front room. He has no idea how he got there.”

Mr Kelleher added that the last thing McCarthy remembered was drinking in a Goodwick pub, but he must have also been to Fishguard as his jacket and wallet containing £80 were later found in the town.

McCarthy had returned to the pub in question to discover he had consumed more than three pints and three whiskeys as he originally thought.

Mr Kelleher said: “He is upset at what has occurred and deeply chastened, so much so that he was considering moving out of the area.”

Magistrates imposed a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £398 compensation, plus £105 in court costs and charges.