A recovering drug addict appeared before magistrates to face sentencing for what the prosecution described as "a catalogue of thefts and dishonesty".

Nathan Smith, 23, pleaded guilty to committing eight thefts, including stealing a Peugeot 205 from Maple Court in Kidlington, which the owner had left with the engine running while she went inside to collect her child. Smith also admitted attempting to steal a car stereo worth £100 from a Mercedes in Woodstock Road, Oxford.

He asked for more than 20 similar offences to be taken into consideration by Didcot magistrates.

Smith, of Coke Hole Bridge in Town Mill House, Andover, also faced a charge of failing to surrender to police bail when he failed to appear at a court hearing on November 16, 2000.

Karen Siduh, defending, said a pre-sentence report recommended that the defendant should face a two-year drug testing and treatment order to help him overcome drug abuse.

The court heard that Smith had successfully completed a four-week drug assessment programme and had been found clean of drugs every time he had been tested during that period.

Smith was sentenced to a drug treatment and testing order, requiring him to provide a minimum of eight samples for drugs testing every month, and a two-year probation order.

The drug treatment order will be reviewed by the court on a monthly basis.