A prolific shoplifter is behind bars after admitting stealing less than 24 hours after he was handed a suspended sentence.

Mark Wilson, who has 134 previous convictions, 86 for thefts, stole joints of meat worth more than £200 from Marks and Spencer in King’s Lynn. 

The 37-year-old pleaded guilty at Norwich Magistrates’ Court to carrying out the theft with another man on August 8.

Prosecutors said it came less than a day after he had been sentenced to 26 weeks suspended for 12 months for possession of a knife. 

Michael Cole, mitigating, said the suspended sentence had followed him being found guilty in his absence when he did not attend his trial. 

He had claimed the knife belonged to someone else.

Wilson, of no fixed abode, also admitted the theft of bottles of Jack Daniels from Tesco in King’s Lynn on July 5.

Deputy District Judge Jacqui Appleton told him: “You are a prolific offender and this suspended sentence must be activated for this. Within less than 24 hours you were in M&S stealing.” 

He was jailed for 28 weeks.