A ONCE prolific thief who went almost a year without offending has appeared in court again.

Alan Brown, 47, of Tudor Walk, appeared before magistrates in Swindon on Wednesday last week.

He pleaded guilty to theft of laundry tablets, worth £25.96, from Co-Op in Sussex Square on September 3.

He also admitted a second charge of interfering with a motor vehicle parked in the County Ground car park on July 9 with the intent to steal items from inside.

The court heard that when the owner of the vehicle, a Mercedes Sprinter van, returned to it, he found that his window had been smashed, his glove box was open, and his sat nav and a spanner had gone missing.

Brown’s blood was found inside the van but as there was no evidence that it was he who had actually stolen the items, the prosecution were forced to pursue a lesser charge of vehicle interference.

The court also heard that two months later, he concealed laundry tablets inside a ‘bag for life’ while in the Co-Op store but when he tried to leave he was detained by security staff.

Sambreen Arif, defending Brown, said he had a long history of drug and alcohol addiction and committing crime to fund it but that he had been doing well to stay out of trouble.

Ms Arif said: “To his credit, the vehicle interference in July was 10 months since his last offence.

“He’s doing quite well, for him, and he wants to work with probation.”

A representative from the Probation Service told the court that Brown had reduced his alcohol intake to “one can in the morning to get him going, one in the afternoon and then one at night” which they described as “significant progress”.

The magistrates evidently agreed as they handed him almost the same sentence as he received for a burglary offence last year.

He was given a nine month community order with a six week curfew from 8pm to 6am and 10 days of rehabilitation activity.