A MAN stole alcohol, meat and a sandwich during a spree of shoplifting offences.

James Dempsey, 44, stole the items from Waitrose in Lymington and Tesco Express in Pennington across four days.

On April 30, he stole £100 worth of meat from Waitrose.

The following day, he stole an unknown value of meat and £13.75 worth of cider on three visits to Tesco Express.

Then, on May 3, he stole two boxes of beer and a sandwich in two trips to Tesco Express.

Dempsey, of Butts Ash Gardens in Hythe, was sentenced at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on May 4.

He pleaded guilty to all six thefts, as well as a public order offence in which he verbally abused and threatened a member of staff at a business in Pennington on May 3.

He was jailed for eight weeks.