A PROLIFIC Cirencester burglar raided two shops in the town and tried to break into the bowling club just two months after being released from his last jail term, a court heard.

Drug addict Craig Russell, of Oakley Road, was caught because his blood was found at a fabric shop he had burgled and he left footprints which matched his trainers.

Russell, who has been recalled to prison for the breach of his parole, refused to attend Gloucester Crown Court for the hearing and his sentence was announced in his absence by Judge Jamie Tabor QC. Russell had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two offences of burglary and one of attempted burglary.

The judge said he would formally pass a 12 months jail term on Russell at a hearing on a date to be fixed when he will also consider a prosecution application for a criminal behaviour order against him.

Prosecutor James Haskell said Russell was paroled from prison last October and stayed out of trouble only until New Year’s Day when he burgled Accessorize in Cirencester and the fabric shop.

The alarm went off at Accessorize at 3am and police found glass broken in the skylight.

Within an hour the alarm went off at the fabric shop and again police were called and a broken window was found.

At that time Russell was seen ‘acting suspiciously’ near the bowling club. He disappeared but when police checked the club entrance they found that a large piece of wood had been used to try to force the door.

Mr Haskell said Russell has been ‘targeting small commercial premises in the town.’ He has made 65 court appearances for a total of 207 offences - 43 of them burglary, said Mr Haskell.

“His offending began back in 1987 when he was a youth. His offences are consistent with someone who has had a long standing addiction to drugs.”

He said the prosecution had received a large number of statements from small business and shop owners in Cirencester revealing the impact of Russell’s offences.

“Small shops run on very right margins and these offences have devastating effects.”

The police were seeking a criminal behaviour order which would ban Russell from the centre of Cirencester between 7pm-7am each day, he added.

Sarah Jenkins, defending, said that after Russell’s release from jail last October ‘there was an initial period of compliance but then relapsed into his old ways.