Serial Shrewsbury shoplifter gets jail wish

Joshua Guy, 24, told a member of staff at Rackhams in Shrewsbury he had the money to buy the £272 of aftershave he had taken off the shelves, a prosecutor said.

However once the bill had been rung through, Guy grabbed the boxes saying "I'm having them" and ran out of the shop.

Prosecuting, Mrs Katie Price said Guy was caught minutes later by security staff in the town. Mrs Price said Guy had told officers "I don't know why I did it. Will I get remanded? I want to go back to prison."

Guy, of Longlands, Market Drayton, pleaded guilty to theft when he appeared before Telford magistrates on Friday.

He also admitted being in breach of a 12-month conditional discharge given to him by Telford magistrates for another shoplifting offence and failing to attend a further drug assessment after testing positive for cocaine and heroin.

Guy also asked for two further offences of stealing cheese and bacon from Sainsbury's in Market Drayton to be taken into consideration.

The court was told he had 34 convictions for 62 offences and was considered an 'amber offender' by police because of his persistent offending.

For Guy, Mrs Emma Lineton said the defendant had been stealing to fund a heroin addiction that the court had been told ran at £30 a day. She said that after spending four weeks in a rehabilitation facility his methadone script had been reduced very quickly leaving him "in his words, in a right state" and that he needed to be assessed for another script.

Mrs Lineton said Guy had told her: "It's not that I want to go back to prison. It's that I need help getting off the heroin. I can't do it myself, I need structure, I need support."

Magistrates adjourned the case until June 12 for the preparation of a pre-sentence report and remanded Guy in custody.