A mean thief who stole a woman's purse while visiting her Carlisle home has been jailed for 110 days.

Victim Cheryl Price lost £150 cash as well as her engagement and wedding rings, although one of the rings was later recovered, the city's Rickergate-based magistrates' court heard.

Stuart Wear, 35, appearing via a video link from Durham Prison, entered a guilty plea to theft, adding to two shop thefts he had admitted on an earlier occasion.

Pamela Fee, prosecuting, outlined how the theft from Ms Price was committed on January 31 when the defendant visited her.

"The victim was concerned about the defendant coming to her address, because of previous matters, and usually makes him sit in a chair in the middle of the room when he visits," she said.

At one point, she left the room to get a carrier bag as Wear had asked for one.

During the visit, the defendant saw Ms Price giving her daughter bus fare money from her purse, said Miss Fee.

She left the room to go to the kitchen for the bag and as she returned she noticed Wear was standing next to her handbag, which was hanging on a door handle.

"He made excuses and left," said Miss Fee. Once he had gone, she noticed that her purse was missing from her handbag.

Inside it were the two rings. Her wedding ring was worth £80 and her engagement ring was worth £400.

The wedding ring was later recovered from a local jewellers' store, where staff said Wear had tried to sell it.

The first shop theft was committed on September 28 last year when Wear stole meat worth £165 from the Co-op in Denton Holme, Carlisle.

He said he needed to steal in order to settle a debt.

Wear committed the second theft in January, stealing goods worth £181 from a Carlisle Tesco store, saying he was going to sell what he had stolen so he could buy food.

Anthony Wilson, for Wear, of Botcherby Avenue, Botcherby, Carlisle, said: "He's funding a heroin addiction."

He said the defendant had shown genuine remorse, and had put his time in prison to good use, which included him moving on to using the heroin substitute methadone on prescription.

District Judge Gerald Chalk imposed a total of 110 days jail, which included five days for unpaid fines. The judge noted the "huge personal loss" incurred by Ms Price in her losing her engagement ring.

The defendant will be under Probation Service supervision for a year. He must also pay compensation for the ring that has not been returned to the victim.