A WOMAN'S wish to be sent to prison was granted with an 18-month sentence yesterday.

Heroin addict Lisa Davies, 29, calculated that she needed a long stretch to fit in a six-months drugs rehabilitation course in Low Newton prison, near Durham City.

She had been offered a hostel place for a course in Newcastle, but she felt that the outside temptations could be too much to resist, said Ian West, defending

He told Teesside Crown Court: "She is a serial shoplifter, stealing to feed her addiction, and I am satisfied that she wants and has thought about what she is asking me to ask you to do."

Davies, of Aarondale Court, Hemlington, pleaded guilty to three shoplifting offences, two of handling stolen goods, two of obtaining by deception and one of perverting the course of justice.

She asked for four deception offences to be taken into consideration.

Jailing her for 18 months Judge Tony Briggs said: "I suppose it's some sign of hope for the future that you realise what your difficulties are.

"The sentence I am unusually invited to pass is in accord with what I first thought before I read reports on you."