A SHOPLIFTER who picked up rolls of wallpaper from a DIY store in Redditch and asked for a refund before walking out with them has been jailed for nine months.

The theft required a "degree of professional planning" and Elvis Hopkins, a 52-year-old former JCB driver, also carried it out at Homebase stores in Worcester and Kidderminster.

He took wallpaper to a total value of £359 in the three thefts in April, May and June last year, Jackie Rogers, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

She said Hopkins would go into the store and select the rolls of wallpaper before approaching the desk to ask for a refund.

When he was refused, he just left the building with the wallpaper.

He was caught on CCTV and through witnesses.

Hopkins, of Aberdeen Street, Winson Green in Birmingham, pleaded guilty to the charges.

The court heard he had lost his job as a JCB driver in March last year shortly before the thefts and had previous convictions for dishonesty.

Recorder Martin Jackson said the thefts required some thought and a "degree of professional planning" to carry out not once but three times.

Hopkins committed the first of the offences just days after being given a suspended sentence for a different offence at Stafford Crown Court.

Recorder Jackson told him he must serve six months of the 12 months suspended sentence plus one month consecutively on each of the three charges, making a total of nine months.