A DRUG addict who also drinks too much begged magistrates to send her to prison.

Tracey Anne Myers, 26, said the only place she could get the help she needed was behind bars.

Magistrates were initially reluctant to send her to prison and said it was very sad she felt the only place she could get the help was in custody.

But they were told her methadone prescription had been suspended and there was a waiting list for admission into Hafan Wen detoxication centre at Wrexham.

Flintshire magistrates sitting at Mold jailed her for 28 days after she admitted two shoplifting offences.

Sandra Subacchi, prosecuting, told how Myers, who has been living in the Wrexham night shelter, Ty Nos, had stolen a bottle of wine from The Co-op in Wrexham on Saturday, and four bottles of alcohol from Home Bargains in Wrexham on bank holiday Monday.

Chris Williams, defending, said: “My instructions are clear.

“She wants you to send her to prison where she can get the help she so desperately needs."

He said she would receive the assistance she required in Styal Prison but she was currently unable to cope on the outside.

The defendant had long-standing drug and alcohol problems. Her methadone prescription had been dispensed at Southsea but she had been unable to go out there at the weekend and she stole the alcohol and became very intoxicated.

"She is realistic. She knows it will be a custodial outcome and that it will be better for her," he said.

Probation officer Edwin Evans said he had known Myers for many years but it was the worst physical condition he had seen her in.

He confirmed that now she had missed three consecutive days on her prescription that would be suspended and she would not get another for some time. She was on a waiting list for Hafan Wen but there would not be a place for her for four weeks.