A BURGLAR who was given a final chance and spared jail nine months ago was last night behind bars for breaching conditions of his suspended sentence.

Alan Pitt failed to turn up for drug screening appointments on two occasions in July, because he claimed there were "unsavoury characters" attending the sessions.

Pitt was given a six-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, with a drug rehabilitation requirement, after he admitted burglary, in January.

But the 26-year-old, from Thornaby, was back at Teesside Crown Court yesterday to be dealt with for breaching the suspended sentence.

Judge George Moorhouse told him he should have been locked up for the original burglary - when he kicked his way into a flat last November.

The judge said: "This is a second breach and you have been warned over and over again, therefore the suspended sentence will be activated and you will have to serve six months."

Pitt, of Avon Close, was said by his barrister, Rebecca Smith, to be willing to work with the Probation Service to take "the long, hard road and rid himself of his heroin addiction".

Miss Smith added: "He realises the chance offered to him in January was his last chance, but if he was to be spared custody and the order was made more onerous, he could be put to the test of his word."