A MAN who broke into the Mini plant twice and wrote off a brand new car by smashing it into a tree has avoided jail after breaching his suspended sentence.

Wesley Gilbert, right, of Owens Road, Cowley, was sentenced in January last year after he admitted aggravated vehicle taking, taking without consent and two thefts from the BMW Mini plant in Cowley.

The 32-year-old was given a 12-month suspended sentence with a drug rehabilitation order and ordered to pay a £100 fine after twice stealing cars from the plant in November 2012.

He appeared on November 18 last year to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court after admitting stealing spirits and toothpaste worth £51.15 from Tesco in Cowley Road.

On that occasion, Judge Mary Jane Mowat ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared to see if there were any alternatives to an immediate prison sentence.

On Thursday she told him: “You have committed another offence during the period of a suspended sentence.

“And the law says that you go to prison for the 12 months you got before unless it would be unjust in all the circumstances.

“This new offence is relatively trivial compared to the offences you were suspended for before.

“It seems to me that your order has been of some use and a similar order could again be of some use.”

She sentenced him to a further four-month suspended sentence with a new drug rehabilitation order and nine months of supervision. He was also told to pay an £80 victims’ surcharge.