A DRUG addict who stole from a church after being invited in by kind parishioners is starting a 15-month sentence behind bars.

Malcolm Waddington's three-month crime spree also included handling goods taken during a handbag snatch and a van break-in.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Waddington was on a suspended sentence when he committed his latest offences earlier this year.

In January, a woman at a function at a Hartlepool social club had her handbag containing a purse and jewellery taken from a chair.

Waddington and another man had been talking to Pauline Johnson at the Hartlepool Supporters Club, and she later reported the theft.

The following month, a selection of tools, paperwork, a computer game and the vehicle stereo were stolen from a van in York Road.

Thirty-year-old Waddington was arrested on March 22 when he was caught trying to steal a hoist wrench from the town's marina.

Earlier that day, he fled from the Church of the Nazarene in Collingwood Road with two rolls of wire cable from a cupboard.

The court heard that Waddington had been invited into the church and given a cup of tea before pretending to go to the toilet.

When he was challenged about what he had hidden under his coat, Waddington fled and dumped the coils in nearby bushes.

Anthony Dunne, mitigating, said Waddington had made progress since his release from prison last year, but slipped at the turn of the year.

Mr Dunne said his client's girlfriend left him, he started drinking heavily and got addicted to sleeping tablets which he funded by crime.

The court heard that Waddington was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for receiving stolen goods last October.

Judge Peter Fox, QC, who imposed six months for this year's offences, and added the nine months, told him: "I've got to send you down."

He added: "You are still a young man and there's no point going on like this. You come out of prison, commit offences, and you go back.

"The church were offering you hospitality and what do you do? Go and kick them in the teeth, metaphorically, by pinching the rolls of wire cable."

Waddington, of Richardson Street, Hartlepool, admitted two charges of theft and two of handling stolen goods.