A MAN with a history of burglary, who was caught using stolen credit cars before the owners woke in the morning, has been jailed.

Robert Gillespie, who has 237 previous convictions and has said that he likes prison, used the plastic within hours of it being taken in a house burglary.

But after the 46-year-old, who was on a suspended sentence, had the burglary charges dropped and admitted handling the cards he was jailed for just 30 weeks.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how a house was broken into on the night of Monday, September 25, into the following morning.

Among the items taken in the raid was the woman's handbag and purse which contained her Santander credit and debit cards.

At 6.30am on the Tuesday he said the first of them was used at Tesco for a contactless payment for £25 worth of goods.

Within two hours, at 8.20am, the other was used for a similar transaction at Morrisons for £20.46 of produce.

Mr Meeke said that the victim was made aware by a fraud alert text from the bank, which stopped one card, while the other was cancelled later on.

He said there was a third attempt to use the card just after midday by a woman going to a shop in Cambria Bridge Road, but they had been cancelled by then.

Footage from the supermarkets' CCTV showed Gillespie with the cards and when he was arrested at the start of October he made no comment to questions other than denying any role in the burglaries.

Gillespie, of Tudor Walk, Walcot, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and two counts of fraud.

The court heard he had 237 previous convictions, including at least 10 burglaries and was on a suspended sentence for shoplifting earlier this year.

Rob Ross, defending, said the victim of the burglary heard her dog barking at about 9pm so it is possible the break in took place the night before.

He said the police were looking for another man in connection with the raid and it 'was clear the card was given to Mr Gillespie in the morning'.

Before he was remanded in custody he said the probation service had been working with him and he had stable accommodation.

He said he was now back on methadone, having started using heroin again, and can continue when he is released as he is putting his risking his life abusing his body with drugs.

Jailing him Judge Robert Pawson said: "I am told that you are co-operating with your current probation order.

"That may be true to a certain extent but you have now pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and using a stolen card.

"Mr Ross says if you were given a chance today your offending may drop off: given your record of 237 offences over a period of about 20 years that seems manifestly unlikely."

When he was last jailed for burglary Mr Ross told the court: "It's sad isn't it, he tells the probation officer last week that he like prison.

"I suppose what he means is he knows where he is, he gets fed, it is warm, he has somewhere to live."