A DRUG addict who bit a store worker on the arm when he tried to stop him shoplifting was yesterday jailed for a year.

Alan Knight was said to have panicked when two assistants tackled him outside Cash Generators in Middlesbrough.

Knight claimed he was struggling to breathe after being struck in the face and put in a headlock during the fracas.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 38-year-old has a string of previous convictions for shoplifting and dishonesty.

He was first before the courts as a 12-year-old and has since amassed 52 convictions, many to feed his drug habit.

Judge Brian Forster, QC, said: "He can be described as a man who is a regular shopper, who doesnt pay for anything."

Knight, of Arundale Drive, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, admitted theft and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The incident happened when he tried to steal 13 DVDs worth 39 from the shop in Linthorpe Road on June 6 last year.

Sharon Elves, prosecuting, said the assistant was taken to hospital and given a vaccine for hepatitis B and antibiotics.

He was still scarred on the arm when he went to court in March to give evidence, before Knights finally pleaded guilty.

Judge Forster told Knights: "The court has to afford protection to front-line workers who work in shops and have to deal with people in circumstances that they do not choose.

"Whatever the situation you found yourself in, there could be no justification for biting the way that you did.

"The young man who was bitten was shocked, he still has a mark on his arm, but he had to attend hospital and be given a hepatitis B injection. The doctors had to take a blood sample for future reference, in case he should fall ill after these terrible events."

Brian Russell, mitigating, said: "He is 38 now and he tells me, quite frankly, that he is getting far too old for this sort of behaviour.

"It is a matter he deeply regrets and would certainly not go out to seek to cause that sort of harm to anyone. The bite was the result of the situation spiralling out of control."