A PROLIFIC shoplifter has been jailed for 22 weeks after a plea that he be banned from all retail outlets in Wrexham town centre was rejected.

North East Wales magistrates chose to activate a 12-week suspended sentence imposed on James Hourigan in April this year after they heard how he was soon reoffending by targeting stores in Wrexham.

They added a further ten weeks to his porridge, although Hourigan’s solicitor, Euros Jones, asked the magistrates to be lenient and increase the length of the suspended sentence and impose a retail ban on the defendant.

On Friday last week Hourigan stole nine cans of Lynx deodorant in two separate thefts from QD Stores in Hope Street, Wrexham and returned to the store the next day to steal seven more cans.

A previous shoplifting expedition saw him steal £24 worth of chocolate, also from QD Stores.

He was caught at Boots store in Eagles Meadow with two packets of razor blades which he concealed under his jacket after being spotted by a member of staff who then waited for him at the door.

When he was arrested he said his head was “pickled” and he struggled to remember things, prosecutor Rhian Jackson told the court.

Hourigan told police he only went to Boots to spray some aftershave because he didn’t feel clean and the razor blades had fallen off the display after he was apprehended.

He was told to pay £63.84 compensation to QD Stores for the items taken.

The court heard he had 41 previous convictions for 107 offences, 64 of which were theft.

The 34-year-old, of no fixed abode, admitted five counts of theft committed between May 5 and June 18 this year.

Euros Jones, defending, said Hourigan knew his position was perilous but he had previously responded to efforts to change his lifestyle.

Hourigan was homeless after being banned from Ty Nos night shelter because he was accused of smoking drugs.

“He finds himself under pressure to steal to order. He has owed money to others for drugs which has left him without anything to live on,” said the solicitor.

The magistrates told Hourigan his “appalling” record left them with no option but to jail him.

He was also told to pay a victim surcharge of £115.