A FREQUENT shoplifter who threatened a store detective with a syringe that he used to inject heroin was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday.

Paul Seymour had 139 offences on his criminal record, 84 of them for dishonesty and theft, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 30-year-old admitted charges of burglary, seven thefts, using threatening words and behaviour and failing to surrender to bail twice, said Christopher Williamson, prosecuting.

He told the court Seymour, of Heath Road, Middlestone Moor, Spennymoor, County Durham, had been caught trying to steal a video recorder from a house in the town's Fern Grove, by a 15-year-old girl, on January 21 this year.

Seymour also stole bottles of vodka from Somerfield in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, last December, then failed to surrender to his bail in April this year.

In February, said Mr Williamson, Seymour stole coffee from the Co-op in Shildon, and in April targeted the same firm, this time in Ferryhill and stole 200 cigarettes.

On April 8, he said, came the more serious charge. Seymour had stolen 18 packs of bacon from the Co-op in Ferryhill and was followed out of the shop to a house in Rennie Street by a store detective.

Seymour took out a needle he used to inject drugs and said: "Stop following me or I'll stab you."

He then lunged at the man and waved the needle around towards his face, said Mr Williamson. Four days later, he said, Seymour was caught stealing from both of the Co-op stores again.

Jamie Hill, for Seymour, said he was not normally violent and was generally a shop-lifter not a burglar.

He said that Seymour committed his offences to feed his heroin habit.