A CAREER criminal who took a car stolen from a house in Ledbury and crashed it has been sent to jail.

The VW Golf was stolen during a burglary at a house in Pound Meadow while the owner was away visiting relatives in Australia, Worcester Crown Court heard.

The keys were taken along with other items in the raid between 7pm on March 23 last year and 10am the following day and passed to 46-year-old Dean Baker who was told to drive the car to Bristol, the court was told.

He got as far as Cinderford in Gloucestershire when he drove it into a

£14,500 Jeep parked outside a school. It belonged to the headmistress who was still working there at 6.45pm, Michael Aspinall, prosecuting, told the court.

Baker was seen by two people standing on the pavement nearby but when they asked him if he was all right, he said it was nothing to do with him because he wasn't the driver and he walked off.

He then offered one of them a bundle of notes totalling about £50 to get him a taxi. His DNA was found on the driver's side airbag which had opened during the crash.

Extensive damage was caused to both vehicles, Mr Aspinall said.

Baker, aged 46, of School Road, Totterdown, Bristol, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking. He pleaded not guilty to burglary and this was accepted by the prosecution. The court heard Baker had a long record of 190 offences dating back to the age of 17 mainly for theft and dishonesty.

Alistair Haggerty, defending, said Baker had been a drug addict for a number of years.

He had been remanded in custody since July and had suffered a stroke which had left him paralysed on his left side due to the drug use.

He said Baker had been a career offender but had now realised the damage the drugs had done to him and had decided to tackle the problem.

He was at low risk of reoffending because he was no longer physically capable of committing the same kind of crimes, Mr Haggerty said.

Judge Nicholas Cole said the offence had caused distress to the owners of the vehicles. He jailed Baker for 14 months.