A CAREER criminal with nearly 200 previous offences on his record is back behind bars after his latest spree.

William Pritchard, 39, of Rupert Brooke Drive, Newport, was jailed for eight months for a shoplifting binge in the city.

The defendant failed to make a clean getaway after twice targeting a Spar store to steal washing powder, as well as air fresheners from Tesco Express.

Pritchard also used a stolen bank card to buy goods.

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At Cardiff Magistrates’ Court, he pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and one of fraud, committed between April 18 and 27.

The defendant’s offences put him in breach of a suspended prison sentence for stealing £156 of goods from a Lifestyle Express store in Newport and a conditional discharge for handling stolen goods.

He was jailed last autumn for 31 weeks after he admitted the theft of a hot tub and a charity box.

The £385 hot tub was stolen from Tesco in Newport’s Harlech Retail Park and the charity box from the city’s Hobbycraft.

Pritchard will also have to pay a £128 victim surcharge upon his release from custody.