A cancer patient who turned to heroin to mask the side effects of chemotherapy has been jailed after he turned to crime to feed his habit.
Matthew Smith's life spiralled out of control after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and he lost his job, relationship and home, and ended up living rough in Exmouth.
He was jailed after he broke into the home of an 83-year-old woman and was seen trying to get into other bungalows in the same street.
Smith, aged 37, tried to lie his way out of trouble by giving false details, but police caught up with him later in the day when he got into a drunken argument at a taxi office.
He was found with a lady's gold watch, stolen from another bungalow, which he claimed to have bought from a stranger in a park for £10.
Former soldier Smith, formerly of Oxford Road, Exeter, but now homeless, admitted burglary, handling, theft, threatening behaviour, and two counts of perverting the course of justice.
He was jailed for a total of 18 months by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC. He told him: "You have a very long criminal record, but I take into account this is your first conviction for a dwelling house burglary."
Ian Graham, prosecuting, said Smith was seen acting suspiciously at around 7am in Nasmith Close, Exmouth, where a 83-year-old woman awoke to find him in her bungalow.
He was seen looking through windows and letter boxes of neighbouring homes and trying door handles, and shoplifted two joints of lamb from the nearby Budgens store in Churchill Road.
He had been arrested for shoplifting at Tesco in Exmouth four days before, but given a false identity. He gave the same alias and was moved on by police.
Officers were called back after he returned to Nasmith Close and went on to cause a disturbance at a nearby taxi office. This time he was identified correctly as a man with a large number of convictions for shoplifting.
Sarah Hornblower, defending, said the bulk of Smith's 160 previous convictions dated from a time when he was a heroin addict. He had succeeded in getting off the drug and for a time had lived a normal life with a home and a partner and a job as a barman.
She said: "He was diagnosed with testicular cancer and became extremely ill, and received a very aggressive course of chemotherapy and an operation to remove a testicle.
"He lost his job, lost his partner and lost his accommodation, and says the treatment made him so ill and feeling so sick he turned again to substance misuse.
"He is very cross with himself for doing that because he says getting off drugs the first time was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.
"In September last year, he was sleeping rough and was at a very low point and was desperate for money to buy drugs. This is his first conviction for burglary. He does not consider himself to be a burglar and he is appalled at what happened."
