HABITUAL criminal Marc Dugdale is today back in prison following a spate of thefts.Dugdale, of Constable Road, Felixstowe, stole a handbag and a mobile phone from a car and in a separate incident took a DVD DVD recorder from a shop.

HABITUAL criminal Marc Dugdale is today back in prison following a spate of thefts.

Dugdale, of Constable Road, Felixstowe, stole a handbag and a mobile phone from a car and in a separate incident took a DVD DVD recorder from a shop.

The thief prised open the window of a Vauxhall Corsa at Felixstowe General Hospital on June 10 and pinched the goods, but was arrested quickly.

Then on June 25, Dugdale stole a £180 DVD recorder from Woolworths in Felixstowe, but returned to the scene shortly afterwards, where he was arrested. He refused to say what he had done with the item.

The 28-year-old, who recently served a four-year prison sentence for robbery, pleaded guilty to the two charges of theft.

Dugdale also accepted five other offences, including the theft of sunglasses from a Dorothy Perkins shop.

At South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court, Lynne Shirley, mitigating, said the crimes were "unsophisticated" and resulted from a need to fuel a heroin addiction.

She added: "He tells me he had an addiction for 12 years. Then he got a prison sentence of four years and afterwards went back on drugs.

"It is clear he has a severe problem which he is trying to address."

Bench chairman Arlene Gillen sentenced the defendant to 35 days in prison, which included a seven-day stretch for two separate breaches of his conditional discharge.