A persistent thief has been jailed - to give the community “a rest” from his offending.

District Judge David Scanlon made the comment as he jailed heroin addict Carl Day for 16 weeks.

The 31-year-old had committed five offences of theft in a four month period.

Kirklees Magistrates’ Court heard that at one point the Paddock man spent £30 a day on the class A drug.

On December 2, Day, of North Street, stole two bottles of brandy from Sainsbury’s in Huddersfield town centre. He put them in a bag and held it above his head in a bid to avoid setting off the store alarms as he left.

On January 2 he was then arrested after stealing a purse from an unlocked vehicle parked in the town.

A neighbour witnessed the theft from the Ford Focus and Day was found lying on some grass nearby.

He also admitted to two thefts of meat from a Co-op store on January 9 and December 22 and taking a bottle of vodka from Bargain Booze on October 16.

In addition Day entered a guilty plea to breaching his community order by failing to attend appointments.

Carl Kingsley, mitigating, said that his client had a long and torturous history due to being addicted to heroin.

He explained: “At the height of his addiction he was taking £30 worth per day of heroin.

“Now he’s down to £10 every couple of days which is a significant reduction for him.

“I do accept that at some point the public needs a rest from him (but) he doesn’t want to be in this situation.”

Judge Scanlon described Day as going out looking for opportunities to get some cash to spend on drugs and agreed that the public needed a rest from his offending.

Jailing him, he added: “My priority is the protection of everybody else from you.”