A 'TRAVELLING, professional shoplifter' who stole more than £400 of alcohol from Skipton Marks and Spencer has been jailed for 24 weeks.

Antony Wilkinson, 44, was sentenced for 12 weeks for the thefts, and for a further 12 weeks activated suspended prison sentence.

Wilkinson, 44, travelled from Halifax to Skipton on two occasions, heard Skipton Magistrates' Court. On November 2, he got away with £253 bottles of alcohol, and on December 9 he took another £164 worth from the store.

On his return trip he was recognised by a member of staff who alerted the police before following him outside to the car park and attempted to stop him from leaving.

Wilkinson was stopped shortly afterwards by police on the A629 Keighley Road in his Peugeot 206, for which he was not licensed to drive, said prosecutor, Alison Whiteley.

Wilkinson, who admitted two shop thefts and driving otherwise in accordance with a licence, had committed the second offence just ten days after receiving a suspended prison sentence from another court for stealing from a Sainsbury's store in Huddersfield.

The court heard he had committed 205 previous offences, including 127 of theft.

He was traced after a member of staff at Marks and Spencer in Skipton realised a large amount of alcohol was missing the day after Wilkinson visited the store in November.

He checked the CCTV and saw Wilkinson put several bottles of alcohol in a bag and leave without paying. The same member of staff then recognised Wilkinson when he went to the store a second time in December.

On that occasion, he followed Wilkinson out of the store to a nearby car park where he was sitting in a Peugeot 206 with a carrier bag on the passenger seat containing several bottles.

He rapped on the car window, but Wilkinson reversed at speed, to be caught later by police.

In mitigation, Mark Baxendale said Wilkinson's behaviour was due to something that had happened in his past. He was receiving help and was making progress which would be stopped if he was sent to prison.

Wilkinson, of Hadassah Street, Siddal, Halifax, was sentenced to 12 weeks for each offence, to run concurrently. Magistrates also activated a 12 week suspended prison sentence given by Kirklees Magistrates Court in November. He will also have to pay a surcharge of £115. There was no separate financial penalty for the licence offence, but he will receive three penalty points. No order was made for compensation.