A MAN who told a court of his fears about returning to prison was told a judge: "You're obviously not too concerned about prison – you keep committing offences."

Jake Sweatland, of Charminster Road, was described as "malnourished" by his mum during a sentencing hearing at Poole Magistrates' Court. The 24-year-old admitted two counts of theft and four of fraud.

It was heard that he had been "threatened and bullied" during an earlier prison sentence as he is a "small man" with a drug addiction.

But district judge Stephen Nicholls said Sweatland's offences were too serious for anything other than a custodial sentence.

The court heard that on February 1, a Bournemouth man in his 20s was called by his bank in relation to suspect activity on his account. A family member checked his vehicle, which had been parked in Coleman Road, Bournemouth overnight, and found it had been broken into and his wallet containing cash and two bank cards had been taken.

The victim's bank records showed three transactions at the Bear Cross Service Station in Ringwood Road between 2.32am and 2.37am on February 1. During the transactions, £29.98, £22.10 and £29.98 was taken from the account.

CCTV footage from the service station was taken by police and Sweatland was identified as the offender.

At around 12pm on Monday, February 4, a man discovered his Ford Mustang, which had been parked on the driveway of his home in Casterbridge Road, Ferndown had been broken into with loose change taken.

He checked his home CCTV system. The footage showed a man later identified as Sweatland breaking into the vehicle the previous night at around 10.25pm.

Officers went to Sweatland’s address on Thursday, February 21 to make an arrest and carried out a search of the premises. During the search they found a debit card in the name of a Bournemouth woman.

Police established the woman had reported the card missing on Monday, January 21. An unsuccessful attempt had been made to use it at Premier Food and Wine in Charminster Road on February 20. Again, Sweatland was identified as the man who attempted to use the card through CCTV from the store.

The defendant has now been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison. Judge Nicholls heard he had failed to make progress with a previous community order and has "issues with crack cocaine".

PC Matt Williamson, of Bournemouth police, said: “Jake Sweatland is a prolific offender and I am pleased that through our investigations we were able to identify him as the man responsible for these offences so he could be brought before the court.

“Although there is nothing to suggest the victims in this case did anything to themselves a target, I would like to take this opportunity to urge residents to make sure they do not leave anything on display in their vehicles and make sure they are locked securely at all times."