A HOMELESS alcoholic who downed cider, lager and two bottles of sherry before stealing women's shoes from a Worcester shop has been jailed.

Louis Wilson was too drunk to remember taking them and a pair of men's shoes from Shoezone on Broad Street.

But he admitted escaping from the shop with the £31.98 haul - which he tossed into the river.

Julie Rosamond, prosecuting, told the court the 30-year-old went into the shop at 3.20pm on Wednesday, August 28, two days after being given a conditional discharge for a similar matter.

"He approached the till and said "five" and was directed towards the size five shoes," she said.

"After picking up a pair of black leather ladies' shoes and a pair of men's shoes, he left the store without paying.

"The defendant appeared to the staff to be suffering from the effects of alcohol."

Magistrates heard Wilson later threw the shoes in the river before being arrested.

He told police he had drunk a bottle of cider, two bottles of sherry and some cans of lager and could not recall the theft.

Nick Roberts, defending, said Wilson, who had been living in St Paul's Hostel, Tallow Hill, Worcester, but was now homeless, was a registered alcoholic.

"He had drunk to excess so much that his recollection of the matters is sketchy.

"But he accepts it was him who was in the shop, left with the items and disposed of them in the river," he said.

Mr Roberts said Wilson started drinking due to family problems.

"He uses alcohol to blacken out the pain of not seeing his children," he said.

Wilson was sentenced to three weeks in prison.