A PROLIFIC offender with a staggering 161 previous convictions is back behind bars after burgling a garage.

Steven Jones stole a bike just minutes after being caught in the act shoplifting.

The 38-year-old then sold the bicycle for cash to buy drugs, and so the ‘cycle of despair and depravity continues’, commented the judge who jailed him.

Jones appeared before Liverpool Crown Court to be sentenced on Tuesday, having pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary at an earlier hearing.

At around 9.50am on August 5 this year, the defendant was walking along Burtonwood Road in Great Sankey, explained Iain Criddle, prosecuting.

In doing so, he noticed that the door of a garage built into a house had been left open, and Jones could be seen on CCTV walking inside and stealing a £300 bicycle.

He was followed by the bike’s owner who later put an appeal on social media looking for help in identifying the thief.

The CCTV footage was handed in to Cheshire Police, and an officer recognised the person stealing the bicycle to be Jones.

Jones was subsequently arrested and answered ‘no comment’ to questions put to him during his police interview.

Mr Criddle revealed that the defendant has 81 previous convictions for a staggering 161 offences, including 14 occasions of burglary.

It was also revealed that Jones committed the burglary only weeks after being given a chance with a suspended sentence by the courts for theft.

In addition, the court heard how the burglary occurred while the defendant was walking home – having been caught shoplifting minutes before.

Representing his client, Ken Heckle, defending, conceded that he has been given chances over the years, but stated that Jones’ drink and drug problems are an ‘illness and an addiction’.

It was said that the offence was opportunistic rather than planned, with Jones looking for quick money for drugs, and he later sold the bike for a ‘fraction of its cost’.

Mr Heckle also commented that his client leads a ‘lonely life’, with his five children said to be in care and having no contact with him.

Before sentencing, judge Simon Medland said: “This all stems from the fact that you have not made the decision to keep off drugs.

“If you made that decision, your life will be transformed, your health will be transformed, your mental health will be transformed, and you can start to live a straightforward, quiet life in the community.

“The trouble is, you have not made that decision, and until you do, things will get worse and worse and worse.

“In effect, the time comes for a substantial sentence, as I cannot say it is unjust to impose that sentence.

“If you keep it up, the sentences will get longer and longer and longer.”

Jones, whose address was given as Patten Arms Hotel, on Parker Street near the town centre, was sentenced to two years and five months immediate imprisonment.