PROLIFIC burglar Craig Russell has been jailed for 10 months for his latest crime in Cirencester – breaking into a hair salon.

Russell, who has made 97 previous court appearances for a variety of offences, used a paving slab to smash his way into Bubbles hair salon on October 24 last year and stole £180.

But Russell, of Gibson Court in Watermoor, Cirencester, injured himself during the break-in and his blood was found at the scene – giving police DNA evidence to prove it was him.

It was the second time Bubbles had been burgled inside 12 months, said prosecutor Julian Kesner, and it was the second time 43-year-old Russell had raided a salon.

Russell, who has 30 previous convictions for burglaries, pleaded guilty to the break-in at Bubbles and was sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on Friday.

The court heard that Russell had previously burgled Limes salon and served a jail term for that offence after being caught in exactly the same way.

Jailing Russell for 10 months on Friday, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him: "I should think the hairdressers of Cirencester, when they knew you were out from your last jail term, started to get extremely worried – and rightly so because within a month you were at it again.

"You have a terrible record and you will go on committing offences for as long as you can. All I can do is to protect people for another period of time."

The judge said that the last time he sentenced Russell he told him there was no hope of any drug rehabilitation programme working in his case because he was self-centred, thought of no-one but himself and ignored whatever upset he caused with his crimes.

Sarah Jenkins, representing Russell, said he "is a man with a historic drug problem."

However, he had given negative drug tests for some time after his last jail term, she said.

Things went wrong when he fell out with his partner and went binge drinking, she said.

The court heard that Russell was not a regular drinker but was so drunk at the time of the offence that he could not even remember burgling Bubbles and when he woke up with a cut finger he wondered how it had happened.