A HOMELESS heroin addict went on a crime spree in a bid to feed his drug habit.

Richard Quarmby, 24, was yesterday jailed for 18 months at Durham Crown Court .

In a few days in August, he carried out a house burglary in Seaham, snatched a purse, stole a car, and made off without paying for petrol in the east of the county.

Quarmby also used a debit card with a false name to buy £45-worth of cigarettes from a petrol filling station in Blackhall.

Jane Waugh, prosecuting, said the crime spree came to an end when he was chased and caught by a householder, who heard Quarmby smashing a window of his caravan, parked outside his home in Sunderland Road, Horden.

Peter Schofield, mitigating, said Quarmby's heroin addiction led him to crime.

Quarmby, previously of Langdale Street, Hetton-le-Hole,Wearside, but now of no fixed address, admitted burglary, theft, obtaining by deception and criminal damage.

He asked for further offences of obtaining by deception, attempted theft, taking a car without the owner's consent and making off without payment, to be considered.