A Screwfix raider who put an OAP in hospital when he crashed into the man’s car was back in court after failing to keep in touch with the probation service.

Craig Ballantyne was given what the judge described last year as a ‘one-off chance to turn his life around’ when he was handed a community order as a direct alternative to being jailed.

As part of the order, the 34-year-old was required to spend 12 weeks in a drug rehabilitation facility to get clean – after which he would be closely monitored by drug support workers.

But after he fell out of contact with the probation service, he was formally ‘breached’ at the end of last year.

It was not until this week that he appeared back in front of Oxford Crown Court on an arrest warrant.

On Tuesday (February 7), the judge dealing with the breach of the community order, Recorder John Ryder KC, told Ballantyne’s barrister that her client was in ‘resentence territory’.

That meant a lawyer would need to be instructed by the Crown to tell the judge about the crimes that earned the defendant the community order, the judge said.

No one was available on Tuesday, so the matter was put back for a month – until March 3.

Defending, Bethan Chichester told Recorder Ryder that her client had ‘fallen off the waggon and spiralled back into the grips of addiction’.

Last year, the crown court heard that Ballantyne was one of the getaway drivers for a gang that raided Screwfix in Cowley at around 11.30pm on October 24, 2021.

While the bulk of the gang piled into a VW Golf and successfully shook off the police officers called to the store, Ford Transit driver Ballantyne was not as successful.

During the chase, he hit 70mph on residential streets with 30mph limits and, in Iffley, crashed into a Vauxhall Aquila being driven by a 76-year-old man. The pensioner suffered a broken collarbone.

The defendant was arrested at the scene and £13,000-worth of power tools stolen from Screwfix were recovered from the back of his van.

When the burglar was before Judge Ian Pringle KC for sentence last May he had already done more than half a year on remand – getting clean of drugs and working with support services in the prison.

He had been assessed as suitable for a rehabilitation scheme offering persistent offenders the chance to address drug addiction problems as part of a community order – and break the revolving door of crime.

Imposing a three-year community order, Judge Pringle told Ballantyne’s barrister: “I am going to give your client a chance. As Mr Burford [a drugs support worker] says, I hope he sees it is a one-off chance. This is the time, at the age of 33, to turn his life around.”