A COURTROOM witnessed emotional scenes today when a desperate mother shouted and screamed as her son was sent to prison for stealing booze from a supermarket.

Louise Loveridge begged magistrates to change their mind after sentencing son Jamie, 20, of Dumbarton Terrace, to eight weeks behind bars for walking out of Marks & Spencer with a bottle of whisky stuffed inside his jacket.

Prison guards had to restrain the pair and prise them apart after they refused to accept the magistrates’ verdict, before the defendant was eventually escorted from the room in handcuffs leaving his mother in floods of tears.

Loveridge appeared at Swindon Magistrates' Court charged with stealing a £32 bottle of whisky from a branch of M&S.

The defendant, who has learning and hearing disabilities and a mental age of an eight-year-old, was caught on CCTV on June 25 pocketing the bottle to fund a £40 per day 'Spice' habit - then a legal high but since banned.

Loveridge was already on probation for previous drug offences and at the time of his trial and owed the court more than £1,000 in fines.

Gordon Hotson, defending, told magistrates: “My client’s use of Spice has been at the root of the offence you are dealing with today and he has got mixed up with a crowd of people that have been dragging him down.

“Since his recent arrests he has tried to distance himself from this crowd and it has significantly reduced his risk of re-offending.

“Because of his difficulties, Jamie is very easily led and very easily influenced. The Probation Service feels that he is not learning his lessons as quick as he should be because he has a tendency to offend whilst being on a community order.

“I submit that an immediate custodial sentence would be very damaging for Mr Loveridge. Were he to find himself in a custodial environment he would be at serious risk of being influenced by others and would be very likely to reoffend when he comes out.

“There is also a significant risk that being in a custodial environment will have a negative effect on his use of Spice and it would not give him the opportunity to completely detox from the substance.

“He knows what he has got to do. He knows he must stay away from the group he has been associating with. He knows that he must keep himself out of trouble completely.”

Mr Hotson argued passionately for a suspended sentence but after 15 minutes of deliberation magistrates returned to deliver a custodial sentence.

Mum Louise pleaded with the bench, saying: “No, I beg you. Give him one last chance, please,” before launching a verbal attack at a representative from the probation service.

On top of an eight-week prison sentence, Loveridge was ordered to pay Marks & Spencer £32.