A 30-YEAR-OLD Lye drug addict has been jailed for three years for committing a string of crimes after being given with a suspended jail sentence for an earlier offence of grievous bodily harm.

Judge Mark Eades at Wolverhampton Crown Court told James Gregory he had a "shocking" criminal record after falling into the grip of a long-standing addiction to heroin.

He said Gregory’s refusal to take up repeated offers of help had been “appalling” and he told him: "That just about sums up the hopelessness of your case.”

Gregory, of High Street, admitted handling £500 worth of stolen tools which he sold at a pawnshop in Stourbridge for just £45 having kept £10 and passed the balance on to the thief.

He also admitted handling a stolen motor cycle and possessing small quantities of heroin and crack cocaine and a further charge involving burglary and another of possessing heroin.

Gregory also admitted the offences breached a two-year jail term, suspended for two years, that had been imposed at the Crown Court for a charge of grievous bodily harm which was handed out after he punched and kicked a man, causing a fractured cheekbone.

The Judge jailed him for a year for the crimes and ruled the two-year suspended sentence should also be brought into effect - to run consecutively.

Blondelle Thompson, prosecuting, said the tools belonged to a man renovating a flat in Lye High Street and that Gregory had stolen property including food, jackets and cosmetics from a unit on a nearby business park.

However he left a bloodstain behind at the premises and investigating cops quickly tracked him down using DNA testing.

Miss Thompson said Gregory had been addicted to drugs for many years and he had 63 previous convictions on his record.