A profilic criminal who has been before the courts more than 50 times has been handed a prison sentence by a judge - who stated the defendant continues to repeat the same crimes.

Kristopher John Murphy, 34, appeared before Preston Crown Court on Wednesday charged with five offences, two of burglary with the intent to steal, theft from a shop and two counts of breaching his criminal behaviour order.

Over the course of 2021, Murphy breached his criminal behaviour order, which was handed to him back in October, and banned him from entering an area of Accrington after repeatedly targeting stores in the town centre.

He breached the order by going into retail premises in the town on numerous occasions.

The two charges of burglary with the intent to steal and theft from shops related to offences committed in July 2021 at shops in Accrington, before Murphy was then arrested on August 3.

Prosecuting, Rachel Woods, told the court stating Murphy had caused "considerable damage" when he broke into the properties.

On July 4, Murphy went to Althams Travel Agents in Accrington town centre which was locked with an alarm by a member of staff.

At 4am the alarm was tripped and the premises had a broken glass window, tills pulled out, windows to the staff room smashed and the premises were in disarray.

After investigations, nothing had been stolen but blood left at the scene from the smashed glass matched the defendant.

In this offence, there was £400 worth of damage and a call out to secure the property which cost a further £250.

The second offence Murphy was charged for was entering a shop in Accrington which sold cigarettes.

Again, the business was locked and secured when the shopekeeper left but in the early hours the shutter doors had been prised open, the boarded window was broken and blood was found on the property.

There was considerable damage worth £1,000 and the blood again matched the defendant.

Later in July, Murphy went into a Spar shop in Accrington at 5pm in the evening.

At this shop he took a carrier bag out of his pocket and proceeded to add eight products before there was a tussle at the door and Murphy fled the scene with the bag of items.

Murphy admitted to the first burglary, couldn't remember the second and admitted to the theft but said the reason behind the offences was his addiction to drugs.

In mitigation, Kimberley Mostom said: "The defendant pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

"The defendant has admitted to having a drug problem and has taken drugs since a young age which progressed into heroin.

"He said he was addicted to crack cocaine in 2016 to 2017 which had a detrimental affect on his life."

Ms Mostom continued to say that whilst Murphy was in custody he missed his friend's funeral, and his girlfriend is pregnant with their first child.

She said he is remorseful of his actions and when he takes drugs he doesn't think of the consequences.

"He has accepted he is in breach, he is on recall and he fully accepts he has spent the majority of his life in custody," Ms Mostom continued.

"He now wants to be a good father, start a family and live a good life, drugs are the problem in his case."

Sentencing Murphy, of Higher Antley Street, Judge Richard Archer told Murphy is a prolific burglar who knew he should not have been in Accrington and especially not committing burglary.

Judge Archer said: "Not looking at previous convictions simply fails to do justice to the case."

Previous convictions were mentioned in the court hearing and Judge Archer said the criminal behaviour is 'identical behaviour to now'.

Judge Archer gave Murphy a concurrent sentence for all charges with a total of two years imprisonment.

Murphy also had to pay a court surcharge.