A heroin addict with a taste for champagne will be sipping far less extravagant drinks from now on, after he was jailed for theft last week.

Nathan Pearse, 31, was spotted by CCTV operators at Marks and Spencer in Eden Walk Shopping Centre on July 10, with an accomplice, putting four bottles of champagne and a carton of orange juice into two separate bags.

Kingston Magistrates’ Court heard on July 31 that Pearse, of Meadway, Twickenham, then left the store with his £109 bounty without paying.

Security staff managed to tackle Pearse outside the store, police were called and the drinks were recovered.

The court heard that Pearse was an “intensive user” of heroin and had stolen the drinks to fund his £20 a day habit.

After magistrates were shown two full pages of Pearse’s previous convictions and heard from probation services that he had breached a previous drug rehabilitation and community order, they decided custody was the only option.

Sentencing Pearse to 17 weeks’ imprisonment, lead magistrate Tony Salem said: “There is no other appropriate way to deal with you based on your record which is, quite frankly, horrendous.”

The 21 days Pearse has already spent on remand will be deducted from his sentence.