BEING arrested saved the life of burglar Mark Few on his birthday, his solicitor has told magistrates.

The 44-year-old had drunk a litre of stolen vodka after breaking into a shop in Cricklade High Street last Wednesday and was suffering from alcohol poisoning when he was picked up sheltering in a garage.

He was taken to hospital and spent the night having his stomach pumped, Swindon magistrates were told.

“Being arrested literally saved his life,” said Tony Nowogrodski, defending him.

Prosecutor Keith Ballinger said the owner of the shop lived in a flat upstairs and was woken by the noise of the break-in.

Checking the CCTV, he saw someone inside the shop and dialled 999.

He then stuck his head out of the window and shouted that he had called the police. As he did so he saw two men drive off.

Downstairs in the store he discovered the glass front door had been smashed with a stone and three-litre bottles of vodka had been stolen along with sandwiches and breakfast cereal bars.

When police viewed the shop CCTV, Few was identified. The second man was unknown.

They tracked Few down to a garage near to the Parsonage Farm address he gave in court and found him with an empty bottle of vodka, as well as two full ones and the remains of a packet of sandwiches.

When told he was being arrested on suspicion of the burglary, he said: “There is no suspicion. I did it. I smashed the window and took some vodka and sandwiches.”

Later at the police station when his legal representative was with him he said he would maintain his right to silence, said Mr Ballinger.

Few, who has previous convictions for dishonesty and a sex offence, pleaded guilty to burglary and admitted being in breach of an order requiring him as a sex offender to notify police of a change of address within three days. He claimed he believed he had 14 days.

Mr Nowogrodski said Few’s mother had died just after Christmas, his father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and he had been in a crash that broke his ankle, leaving him unable to do his job in a local scrapyard.

He had fallen out with his girlfriend and did not know whether he would be welcome back at her address.

His depression got the better of him when he went round to speak to his girlfriend on March 8 - his birthday - and the conversation did not go well.

He drank almost a whole bottle of wine, went to the shop and burgled it.

“It really beggars belief in its stupidity,” said Mr Nowogrodski.

“It was naïve, unsophisticated and quite clearly resulted in a great deal of anguish for himself.”

Afterwards Few went to the garage near his girlfriend’s home and drowned his sorrows.

The bench adjourned the case after hearing a probation report could not be done because of Few’s sex offence conviction. He was granted unconditional bail.