An ‘UNREPENTANT’ thief who stole a trio of laptops from a barrister has been jailed for two years and 10 months.

Richard Mitchell strolled into 3 Paper Buildings’ chambers in Beaumont Street, Oxford, before helping himself to the laptops, worth about £2,500.

The burglar, who had 58 convictions for 185 offences, also stole a laptop from North Oxford’s Polstead Preschool, Oxford Crown Court was told.

Sentencing the 41-year-old on Thursday, Judge Maria Lamb lambasted Mitchell for his lengthy criminal record, adding: “When you are short of money, you do show a tendency to help yourself to other people’s property and sell it on for drugs.

“You are no stranger to the criminal justice system and you know very well the sorts of sentences that are meted out to the people who commit burglary.”

Defence barrister Ronan McCann said Mitchell, of O’Hanlon House, Luther Street, Oxford, is battling a ‘substantial’ drug addiction.

The burglar was in the care system from the age of four after his mother took him to their GP with a broken collarbone and leg.

Mitchell is ‘completely alone in the world’, with no family members around for support, the barrister said.

Mr McCann went on to say Mitchell has spent between 16 and 18 years of his life behind bars, adding: “Prison is so commonplace for him that it is simply a return almost to home.”

Mitchell, who was ordered to pay a victim surcharge, admitted two counts of burglary on January 1 and February 7.