A former Worcester man who boasted he was "a career criminal" burgled a city hotel a week after being released from jail.

Dean Ludlow entered the manager's room at The Severn View in Newport Street and stole his credit card.

His girlfriend - the mother of his son - was a guest at the hotel and invited him in because he had nowhere to stay, Worcester Crown Court heard.

He used the card to obtain cigarettes and a phone card from Castle Street service station, said Paul Whitfield, prosecuting.

Bailed by magistrates, the defendant then stole a compact disc from the HMV music store in Worcester but was caught outside.

Ludlow, of no fixed address, claimed he would use compensation money to make a fresh start after serving successive jail terms since 1990, said his barrister Heidi Kubik.

But Judge Michael Mott said it would not be realistic to give Ludlow a non-custodial sentence because innocent people had to be protected from him.

The judge said he had not been responsive to the probation service in the past and regarded probation as a waste of time because he was a career criminal.

He sentenced 28-year-old Ludlow to two-and-a-half years' jail which included part of a prison licence period after he was freed early on parole.

Mr Whitfield said within a week of being released from a five-year jail term for dishonesty in June this year, Ludlow took the hotel manager's wallet.

The manager later went to the service station where he identified Ludlow on a security video as the man he had seen at the hotel with a female guest.

Miss Kubik said Ludlow had become instiutionalised after an appalling criminal record and had adjusted to being locked up.

He was in desperate financial straits at the time of the offences. But he had now won compensation for false imprisonment. It gave him the opportunity to break the cycle of offending.