A “PROLIFIC offender” high on narcotic painkillers stole a car outside Sainsbury’s before crashing it in a nearby street this week.

Martin Alan Wilson, 30, of Beaconsfield Street, Darlington, was jailed for 22 weeks and banned from driving for at least four years after the incident at Darlington’s main Sainsbury’s store on Wednesday.

As he appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates, District Judge Martin Walker asked his solicitor: “I know your client is under the influence. Is he coherent enough to enter his pleas?”

She said he was, and Wilson pleaded guilty to theft charges, driving while disqualified, aggravated vehicle taking and property damage, possession of amphetamine, failing to provide a specimen for analysis, and having no insurance.

Prosecuting, Paul Doney said that the owner of the car parked outside Sainsbury’s, but accidentally left his keys on the passenger seat.

“When he came out, the defendant, and the vehicle, were gone,” he said. “In a nearby street Mr Wilson was found in a car and had crashed.

“Police said his speech was slurred and he was drowsy and he said he had taken 30 tramadol tablets.”

He said officers also found a small wrap of amphetamine on Wilson when he was searched.

“He was taken to hospital after the accident but then taken to custody where he refused to provide a sample of blood.”

Zoe Passfield, mitigating on behalf of Wilson, said he had no memory of the theft from the shop, or of stealing the car and crashing it, as she said his friend gave him some Valium tablets and he took them, not even knowing what they were.

“There was a lack of recollection of what went on,” she said. “There was no damage to himself or to anybody else.”

Judge Walker said: “Martin Wilson has been a prolific offender. He has 32 pages of convictions and he continues to offend. He is in breach of a suspended sentence imposed on January 30.

“He is a man who has a significant drug problem. I don’t like sending people to prison, but I have to impose a sentence here and it will be as low as I possibly can.”

Wilson was sentenced to 22 weeks in prison, 12 weeks from the suspended sentence and a further ten to follow, and was disqualified from driving for at least four years. If he wants to drive again, he has to take an extended retest.

He was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge.