A PERSISTENT thief who struck again the day after he was released from prison has gone back to jail for 12 months.

Stephen Proctor, a homeless drug addict, targeted two pharmacies in Bradford to steal medical equipment in breach of a Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from entering the shops.

Proctor, 47, pleaded guilty to stealing twice each from Lloyds Pharmacy on Proctor Street in Bradford and the city’s Rooley Lane Medical Centre.

All the offences were committed between March 3 and 11 and each was accompanied by a charge of breaching the five-year CRIMBO imposed in February 2019 for assault and shoplifting.

Prosecutor Emma Downing told Bradford Crown Court today that Proctor was on licence having been released from jail just 24 hours before committing the first set of offences.

On March 3, he grabbed £40 of goods from Rooley Lane Medical Centre, causing a woman staff member to fall over as she tried to stop him.

Proctor struck at Lloyds Pharmacy six days later, seizing £152.92 worth of items and making off with them.

He returned the next day to grab £77.25 of goods before he was arrested on March 11 with £283 of stock he had recently stolen from Rooley Lane Medical Centre.

Miss Downing said Proctor had 58 previous convictions for 166 offences, including 102 thefts. This was his sixth breach of the CRIMBO.

She labelled it “prolific and sustained offending,” just 24 hours after he had walked out through the prison gates.

Ashok Khullar said in mitigation that Proctor was a desperate man killing himself with his addiction to Class A drugs.

“He’s a case study in revolving door recidivism,” he told the court.

Proctor had missed his appointment for Methadone because he was released too late to get there so he bought street drugs instead. He was homeless and then tested positive for Covid which meant he couldn’t get access to the help he needed.

He committed the offences because he wanted to go back to prison.

Mr Khullar said Proctor wasn’t a violent man who robbed people, just a public nuisance. For the public’s sake, he needed stable accommodation and access to medication to stop his craving for Class A drugs.

Recorder Peter Hampton said Proctor was caught up in “revolving door” offending that meant he was in and out of prison all the time.

The only possible sentence was one of immediate custody.