A HEROIN addict who has committed more than 370 criminal offences has been sent back to jail less than four days after being released.

Steven Baker, 36, was let out of Chelmsford Prison on Friday evening after serving eight weeks for shoplifting but by 2.15pm on Saturday he was spotted stealing joints of meat worth £32 from the Co-op in Mersea Road, Colchester.

Later the same day police were called after he barricaded himself in a toilet in the Curzon cinema in Queen Street, Colchester.

When officers burst in they found drug paraphernalia in the cubicle and Baker told them he had taken heroin.

A small amount of the Class A drug was found in a wrap nearby.

Baker was arrested and spent Sunday in custody before he admitted theft and drug possession at Colchester Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he was jailed again for eight weeks.

Caroline Woodley, mitigating, said Baker - who has 281 previous offences for theft alone on his record - was stuck in a sad cycle of drug taking and jail.

She said: “He has been using drugs for a number of years - cannabis since he was 13 and heroin from the age of 25 which started out of curiosity.

“He has had periods of abstinence - mainly when he has been subscribed Subutex.

“He was released from prison on Friday with no script to help with his drug addiction, no accommodation and no hope.

“All he had was the £46.50 in discharge money which has been spent.

“He cannot remember where he slept on Friday - presumably on the street - he thinks he drunk some alcohol and he cannot remember stealing but accepts he probably did.

“It is very sad.

“There is no answer for him if he doesn’t have accommodation.

“The first port of call in Colchester is the Night Shelter but you have to be clean of drugs and alcohol to stay there and if you have been asked to leave before then you are on the black list.”

Baker, who gave his address as Spenser Road, Ipswich, must pay compensation to the Co-op to replace the items he stole.

The remaining heroin will be destroyed.