A THIEF who has nearly 150 convictions has been jailed following his latest crime spree in York.

Paul Leslie Dobbin, 41, started his latest series of offending by stealing a set of golf clubs, a wallet, a mobile phone charger, gloves, bank cards and a driver’s licence, together worth £1,200, from a car in Brook Street, off Clarence Street, on September 5, said Martin Butterworth, prosecuting.

Police then caught Dobbin with a stolen Fujitsu computer worth £200 at an address in Monkgate on September 6.

Five days later, officers spotted Dobbin crouching by some bushes near Union Terrace car park. He threw a stolen chequebook into the undergrowth as they approached but the officers found it.

On October 15, he stole a bag from Croft Court, Bishopthorpe, and the same night, he stole keys for a BMW car in School Lane, Bishopthorpe.

Dobbin now has 148 convictions, mostly for theft and similar offences.

His solicitor, Colin Byrne, said: “There is an inevitability about Paul Dobbin’s position today.

“He accepts he will receive a custodial sentence.”

Dobbin, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to three thefts and two charges of handling stolen goods and was jailed for 16 weeks.

Magistrates said he had committed his offences while on a conditional discharge and some of them had been committed on bail as well.

Mr Byrne said Dobbin had been released from his previous sentence earlier this year and had tried to move into the family home.

But that had not worked and he had become homeless.

The court was told as the weather got colder Dobbin had turned to drink and committed crimes to fund an addiction.