A DRUG addict's need for heroin drove him back to crime just two weeks after he was released on parole from a three-year prison term, a court heard.

David Peploe, 26, of Foxes Piece, Little Marlow Road, Marlow, took two cars from the Dovecot multi-storey car park in High Wycombe within days of each other last November.

But he was caught driving one of the cars after police gave chase and he crashed into a steel bollard, Aylesbury Crown Court heard last Friday.

Peploe was committed to the crown court for sentence by Wycombe magistrates on January 7 after pleading guilty to taking a Vauxhall Astra without consent on November 16 and aggravated vehicle taking three days later involving a Vauxhall Nova which was later written off.

The court was told Peploe, who has a string of previous convictions, was jailed for three years in August 1999 for burglary.

He was released on parole only a fortnight before the cars were taken.

Mitigating, Sam Smith said Peploe's drug addiction was behind his offending and added: "On this occasion, some 15 days after his release he was back to needing heroin and taking cars."

Judge David Morton Jack sent Peploe back to jail for 23 months, including 17 months outstanding on his last sentence.

February 14, 2002 13:38