A burglar who earlier this summer begged a judge to send him to prison has finally got his wish.

Jailing Ashley Ellison, 22, for 18 months at Oxford Crown Court on Monday, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said he had thrown away ‘chance after chance’.

The Banbury man was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years in 2020 after he admitted breaking into a garage in Willow Drive, Bicester.

Almost a year on, he had managed to complete just nine-and-a-half hours out of 100 hours of community service ordered and had twice been breached by the probation service.

Judge Gledhill heard that Ellison had failed to turn up to probation appointments, had missed his last session with addiction charity Turning Point and was at risk of being thrown out of his accommodation.

Mitigating, Peter du Feu said the burglar was struggling with an addiction to powder cocaine. He had previously attended court asking to be sent to prison. “He’s at a pretty low ebb.”

Sending Ellison to prison, Judge Gledhill said: “You know as well as I do the probation service, Turning Point and myself to some extent have done everything we possibly can to keep you from going to prison.

“You have committed no further criminal offences. You’ve done your best in the state you are to comply, I understand that, but in fact your best wasn’t good enough.

“You’ve been given chance after chance and you’ve thrown it away.”

Ellison, formerly of Angus Close, Banbury, admitted breaching his suspended sentence order.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For news updates straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on news@nqo.com or 01865 425 445.