A CRIMINAL with an appalling record for offending has been jailed again after stealing bottles of booze.

Adam Lees is no stranger to the courts or custody, having amassed more than 40 convictions for offences which number in excess of 90.

The 35-year-old was locked up for 13 months in January last year for attacking a vulnerable man in sheltered accommodation to rob a £10 note.

He is now back in prison for a spirit shoplifting spree in Warrington.

Lees appeared to be sentenced at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after admitting two charges of theft from a shop.

Callum Bryce, prosecuting, explained how on June 5, the defendant stole four bottles of vodka to the value of £86 from Sainsbury’s supermarket on Church Street.

Just 11 days later, he was caught pinching three bottles of Jonny Walker Whisky valued in total at £60 from the same store.

Before sentencing, magistrates took Lees’ guilty pleas into account, however they remarked that the offences were ‘so serious’ that only a custodial sentence could be justified.

This was due to the defendant having a ‘flagrant disregard for people and their property’, as well as the nature and seriousness of his previous convictions.

Lees, whose address in court was simply listed as Runcorn Custody Suite, was jailed for 26 weeks.

His January 2021 conviction came after he attended Haden House on Mersey Street on December 15, 2020.

He offered to sell drugs to a resident of the supported housing scheme before demanding money from him, claiming he owed a debt.

Lees then got the man in a headlock and wrestled him to the floor before taking a £10 note from him – an assault that was captured on CCTV.

The spice addict then fled the scene, but was later charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and theft.