A criminal who was ordered to do community payback went shoplifting on his way home from a session of unpaid work.

Robert Shelton stopped off at a branch of Boots and stole a bottle of Britney Spears Fantasy perfume as a New Year’s Eve present for his new girlfriend.

Shelton was doing unpaid work after being let off with a suspended sentence for a sneak theft in which he sweet-talked his way into a 90-year-old woman’s home and stole money from her purse.

Shelton, aged 21, of Ley Lane , Kingsteignton, admitted theft and breach of a suspended sentence and a community work order.

Judge Erik Salomonsen adjourned his case at Exeter Crown Court for a month to give him a final chance to do the community work and cooperate with probation.

He told him: ‘The original theft from the 90-year-old was a pretty low offence which justifies prison but you were given the privilege of undertaking your sentence in the community.

‘You repaid that opportunity by failing to comply with the order and then by stealing a bottle of perfume. I am giving you a final chance to get on with the work.’

Miss Anita Noerr, prosecuting, said Shelton missed two unpaid work sessions in December but did attend on December 30.

She said: ‘The probation service are concerned that he committed the new offence of theft after he left his unpaid work on that day.

‘He went to the Greenhill Retail Park at Newton Abbot with a plastic carrier bag and was seen to put the perfume in the bag and leave without paying. He was followed and challenged and returned to the store.’

Mr Kevin Hopper, mitigating, said the perfume was a display bottle which was worth less than its nominal value of £45. It was intended for his new girlfriend who has been a stabilising effect on his life.

He said Shelton has a job as a home improvement salesman and is keen to work with the probation service again.

In the previous case at Exeter Crown Court in September Shelton received a four-month suspended sentence and 120 hours’ unpaid work.

He was branded as wicked and mean by the judge but spared jail after his kind-hearted victim sent a letter to the judge asking for mercy and suggesting he should he taught a trade rather than locked up.

He talked his way into her home in Newton Abbot by asking for a glass of water and stole from her purse as she was fetching it.

He was caught when he went back the next day to try the same trick.

On that occasion Recorder Mr Philip Mott, QC, told him: ‘These were particularly wicked and mean offences which targeted, at least on the second occasion, a 90-year-old vulnerable victim.’