Catalogue of theft by drug addict

But Wayne Newman was quickly arrested by police who saw him leaving nearby school grounds carrying a rucksack.

Bottles of stolen drink and videos were seized and the victim's pension books were recovered from a hedge and returned to her.

Brett Stevenson, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court the pensioner had been very upset since the raid on Tuesday, January 2, this year.

Newman also stole drink from a supermarket in Ledbury, tried to steal a £24 Action Man from Woolworths in Hereford, and offered to sell his ex-wife's stolen video recorder to a friend.

The 28-year-old from Whitehouse Way, Tupsley, Hereford, admitted burglary, theft, drug possession, attempted theft, and handling stolen goods.

Judge Marten Coates remanded him in custody for assessment on his suitability for a drug treatment and testing order.

He told Newman an alternative sentence could be more than 30 months' jail.

The judge said he had invaded the pensioner's privacy and she would never forget his break-in at her home in Hereford while she was out shopping.

She lived alone in a one-bedroom flat with her daughter living next door, said Mr Stevenson. Newman got in through a window.

Police who raided his former home in Springfield Avenue, Hereford, also found nine wraps of heroin in a bag on his sofa.

Defence counsel Stephen Dent said Newman had committed unsophisticated crimes to get quick money for drugs.

He began on LSD and cannabis at the age of 15, then graduated on to cocaine and heroin.

Newman's drug taking was under control for a time when he was happily married. But his offences coincided with the relationship breaking down.

His new girlfriend was pregnant with his child and he desperately wanted to kick drugs.

His father, Leslie Newman, told the judge that before he went to jail on remand, his son was like a skeleton and close to death.

While inside for the past three months, he had not taken any drugs. Now his son wanted the chance to stay off them.