A THIEF was given his Christmas wish by magistrates who jailed him for four months.

Heroin addict Ryan Pratt’s solicitor told them his client wanted to go to prison because his life was in a mess.

The 33-year-old of no fixed address was arrested on Friday after stealing DVDs worth £145 from HMV in Swindon, breaching a suspended prison sentence.

He pleaded guilty to both allegations when he appeared in the dock at Swindon Magistrates Court on Monday.

Prosecutor Keith Ballinger said a shopper alerted security that the door alarm had gone off. A check on CCTV revealed a man taking three box sets of DVDs and concealing them.

He was identified as Pratt and arrested the following day when he admitted he had carried out the theft to buy heroin and feed himself. He had 49 previous theft convictions and his last was on November 16 when he was given a 16-week sentence suspended for two years.

Andrew Watts-Jones, defending, said: “He is somebody who has been in front of the courts for a very long time. I have known him for 20 odd years. He is one of those lost souls who is incapable of dealing with the world in any capable fashion. He has had a heroin addiction for as long as he can remember.”

But he stressed Pratt was not a violent man. “He has a mum who loves him. She is a wonderful person. He is not allowed to live with her because he nicks off her. Roughly twice a year he goes through periods where he wants to go to prison because he is so hopeless at sorting his life out. Quite often it happens at Christmas. Inevitably he is going to get his wish.”

In a previous attempt at being jailed Pratt had approached police and told them he had a knife in his pocket.

Jailing Pratt would get him clean physically, but would not improve his mental state. “He needs balls. Prison will never help anybody grow those,” he said. “It is a very sad situation, He is not a bad man, he is a sad man.” The magistrates activated Pratt’s suspended sentence and added a further two weeks for the latest theft. He was also told to pay £115 towards victim services.