A MAN with more than 160 offences on his record is behind bars for a spate of crimes carried out to fund his drug addiction.

Career criminal Christopher Small stole two drills from a builder’s van and a £500 nail gun from another workman the following day - then threatened him with a knife after he pursued him.

For six months last year, the 39-year-old terrorised two sisters by repeatedly turning up at their home, threatening them with violence, and demanding food, money and heroin.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Small also broke into an assisted housing complex for elderly and vulnerable people in Hartlepool looking for things to steal.

Jailing him for two years, Recorder Keith Miller told him: “You have appeared before courts on 67 previous occasions for 162 offences. It is difficult to imagine the total misery you must have caused to countless people.

“Your offending has been appalling, and you seem not to have learned anything from your past custodial sentences.”

Small, of Stephen Street, Hartlepool, admitted two thefts, possessing a bladed article, two charges of putting a person in fear of violence through harassment and burglary with intent to steal.

Paul Abrahams, mitigating, said Small was on a methadone programme to tackle his drugs habit while in prison on remand.