A DRUG addict has faced court after he made the foolish mistake of returning to the scene of his crime and trying to steal from a store for the second time.

After seemingly getting away with stealing videos games to fund a drug addiction, Robert Stephen Graham returned to try to get away with an identical offence just weeks later.

However he had been captured on CCTV at an Ilminster supermarket selecting computer games and then walking out with them in a bag without paying.

This time Graham was spotted by a member of staff stealing computer games from the Tesco store.

After being challenged by staff and realising the game was up, the defendant fled the shop and tried to hide in a nearby field.

However he was forced to give himself up after a struggle with a member of staff from the store.

When Graham was arrested by the police he confessed he had deliberately gone to the store with a foil-lined bag to avoid the security alarms.

He told officers that he needed the cash to fund his addictions to heroin and crack cocaine as he had lost his job.

Graham, 24, of Treves Road, Dorchester, pleaded guilty to stealing computer games worth £398 from Tesco in Ilminster on June 12.

Graham also pleaded guilty to the theft of more games worth £308 from the same shop on June 26.

He also admitted failing to surrender to bail on July 10 when he appeared in the dock before Somerset Magistrates at Yeovil.

Lucy Coleman, prosecuting, said that a security officer working at Tesco found an empty basket on the floor by the computer games on June 12.

The top shelf was empty and a number of games were missing.

CCTV coverage showed that Graham had selected the games and then left with them in a bag without paying.

On June 26 the same witness saw the defendant enter the store again and when he got to the computer games he put some of them into his trolley.

“He then went to a different aisle and concealed them in a bag and left the store but was stopped by staff and asked to return,” she said.

“He ran off and a member of staff tried to stop him. He dropped the bag and went to some nearby fields but realised he had nowhere to go so gave himself up to staff after a short struggle.

“The police were called and inside the bag were seven games worth £308.

“When Graham was interviewed he admitted the offence saying the bag had been foil-lined to stop the alarms from going off.

“He said he was going to sell the items to pay his drug debts.

“The court heard that at the time Graham was using about £50 worth of heroin a day and was also addicted to crack cocaine.”

He said he had sold the other games after losing his job three weeks earlier and that he had been forced to commit crime to pay for his drug habit.

Defending, Neil Priest said that while on remand in custody awaiting sentence Graham had been put on a prescription to help with his drug problem.

“He has not been abusing heroin for a long time, just between three and six months.

“Such was the nature of the drug addiction’s hold over Graham that he committed the offences when he did not have the money he was used to having while working,” he said.

The magistrates ordered Graham to pay £398 compensation to Tesco as punishment for the offence.

Graham had already spent two weeks on remand in custody.

Magistrates also imposed a £180 court charge.