A habitual drug user has been jailed for eight months for stealing computer equipment linked to the former top cop leading the enquiry into the death of Princess Diana.

Far from being an MI5 plot to steal secrets about the Diana investigation the laptop was taken by a hopeless drug user.

Heroin addict David Forster, 28, pleaded guilty before magistrates in Newcastle to burgling an office used by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens.

A laptop belonging to Lord Stevens' assistant was snatched in a series of burglaries over the weekend of January 27th to 30th, and later sold to fund Forster's drug habit.

Forster, of Wooler Crescent, Gateshead, was jailed for stealing the laptop and two others from a nearby office as well as cash.

Lord Stevens is the head of Operation Paget, the enquiry into the death of the Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

He has vowed to investigate conspiracy theories surrounding the crash which also killed Diana's lover Dodi Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul.

Lynne Russell, prosecuting, told the court how Forster had smashed a window to gain entry to the office and had eventually been caught using DNA evidence.

When interviewed Forster confessed to an earlier burglary at another office in which he stole the cash and two other laptops.

Paul Donaghue, defending, said that the motivation for the break-in was to fund his serious drug addiction and that this offence was only the "tip of an iceberg".

He said: "He has been caught on one occasion by carelessness - leaving blood at the scene of the crime."

The court heard that Forster has a child by a long term partner and previous attempts to battle his drug addiction have failed.

Geoff Lumsdon JP said he felt that a custodial sentence was necessary and jailed Forster for four months on each charge, to run consecutively, but rejected a request for compensation.

Lord Stevens' office is in the Regent Centre in the Gosforth suburb of Newcastle although it is not marked in any way.

The theft sparked fears the computers could contain sensitive material from Operation Paget.

But the former Northumbria Police chief said the stolen laptops did not belong to him and that no personal material or material relating to the inquiry was targeted in the break-in.

He said: "They are not my computers, they belong to a woman assistant and I don't use that office, I work in a chief executive's office."

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman also said the laptops did not contain any sensitive information.

A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "While the laptops were stolen from a suite of offices sometimes used by Lord Stevens there is nothing to suggest that these burglary is in any way linked with his work as Commissioner of of the Metropolitan Police or any investigations which he has been involved in either now or in the past.

"It is not unusual in Newcastle area command for commercial premises to be targeted for laptop thefts."