Locking up a persistent thief won’t solve the problems that lead to him continually breaking the law, York Magistrates' Court heard.

Eleven days after he was released partway through his latest sentence, Sean James Beard, 32, stole hundreds of pounds of tools from a van, said Kathryn Walters, prosecuting.

He left them in a nearby garden that was overseen by private CCTV. When the garden’s owner found them, he showed police footage of the crime and Beard was arrested.

Today he is back behind bars until January, the court heard, as he has been recalled to prison to finish his prison sentence, as well as given a new sentence for his latest crimes.

Beard has been stealing so frequently for years in York, the city’s magistrates have twice made him subject to criminal behaviour orders banning him from touching or getting into vehicles and staying in shops. They have also banned him from part of the city.  

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“What can I do, what can you do in the criminal justice system?” his solicitor Liam Hassan asked district judge Adrian Lower.

“Nothing,” said the judge.

He heard that the probation officers supervising Beard under his prison licence, were concerned others had taken over his bank account and that he may have to resort to crime to survive.

“There are aspects about you that means you have been exploited by other people who are probably more sophisticated and have got you involved in things you really should not have got involved in,” the judge told Beard.

He jailed him for 16 weeks. Beard, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to theft and failure to register with police as a sex offender.

Ms Walters said Beard was on the sex offenders’ register because of a previous conviction and should have told police within three days of his release from prison where he was living.

He left prison on September 5 and didn’t tell police he was staying at a York hostel for the homeless until September 11.

In the early hours of September 16, he broke into a parked van and stole two boxes of tools worth together between £700 and £750.

He hid them in a garden in the same street.

Mr Hassan said there were concerns Beard could be a “modern slave” because of his drug debts. He had been diagnosed with a psychosis, and had no family to support him.

The people he mixed with broke the law or took drugs, the court heard.

“There are only two ways this is going to end and neither is good for Sean Beard,” said Mr Hassan.