A THIEF given a jail term by Burnley Magistrates did not wait around to be taken into custody.

Michael Jonathan Ashe, 30, a one time £100 a day heroin addict, was sentenced to eight months, but had left the building by the time the bench returned to court to announce its decision.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and when he is found he will be taken straight to prison.

The chairman told the court the defendant had offended while on bail, was persistent and his actions were deliberate and pre-planned. He had flouted court orders and not responded to non-custodial sentences in the past.

Ashe, of Parkinson Street, Burnley, had earlier admitted driving while disqualified. not having insurance, no test certificate, theft, abstracting electricity and attempting to steal.

The court was told Ashe was caught helping himself to £200 worth of stone flags from a man's back yard and when challenged said the binman had said they were scrap. He also got behind the wheel while banned.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Ashe had set off driving to visit his children and had stolen to raise cash to go and see them.

Ashe had been put into care at the age of five and did not go home until he was 15 after which he received his first sentence of detention. He had offended to feed his drug habit but there had been a break in his committing crime when he got married, had children and moved to Ireland.

For the first time the defendant had stability in his life but when he returned to England for a holiday, his wife rang to say she had been seeing somebody else.

She told him there was no point going back to Ireland and so Ashe stayed in Blackburn and once again started appearing before the courts.

In the mid 90s, Ashe had been a £100 a day heroin addict and people had thought he was within months of killing himself because of drug abuse.

Mr Church-Taylor added Ashe, a very complex character, had shown he could behave himself during periods of stability but the "inner demons "still remained and he had to come to terms with them. He had tried to take his life three times but had been taken to hospital and helped.