A serial thief from Alton has been jailed for 12 weeks after stealing several bottles of gin from a supermarket.

Basingstoke & North Hampshire Magistrates Court heard that Stuart Austin stole gin worth £168 from Sainsbury’s in Fleet town centre on August 16.

He was arrested 12 days later after stealing cleaning products worth £26.50 from the Co-op store on Lower Farnham Road in Aldershot on August 28.

The 49-year-old of Alexandra Road was charged with two counts of theft from a shop.

He was jailed on Friday, August 30, after admitting to both offences with his guilty plea being taken into account.

Meanwhile, the latest www.police.uk crime map for Alton shows that shoplifting was the second most commonly reported crime in June accounting for 14 out of 105 crimes.

Violent or sexual offences (41) and criminal damage or arson (11) were the first and third most reported offences, respectively.