A bungling serial thief has been jailed after his amateur efforts saw him nabbed outside shops four times.

Mark Dagg, 42, of Mount Road, near Barnes Park, Sunderland, did not try to flee when confronted by security and instead affably awaited police, a court heard.

The crack cocaine user stole to feed his £20-a-day addiction, his own solicitor admitted to magistrates in South Tyneside.

Dagg was nabbed pinching six rump steaks, valued at £14.94, from B&M’s South Shields store on Thursday, August 13.

Thief Mark Dagg, left, has been jailed after targeting this B&M store as part of a stealing spree.

placeholder image — Thief Mark Dagg, left, has been jailed after targeting this B&M store as part of a stealing spree.

On Tuesday, November 3, he was stopped while stealing £15 worth chocolate from Sainsbury’s Riverside Road outlet in Sunderland.

And on Thursday, December 10, he was held while taking £40 worth of chocolate and cleaning products from B&M, in Sunderland.

The following day Dagg was collared at the same shop after taking £48 of chocolate.

He has now been put behind bars for six weeks for the offences after magistrates activated a suspended sentence imposed in October 2019 for two shop thefts totalling £100.

One of thief Mark Dagg's targets was B&M, in Waterloo Square, South Shields.

Dagg breached it by committing two of his new offences before it expired on December 2.

Prosecutor Paul Anderson told the court: “All the offences are of a similar nature, they are low value shop thefts.

“On each occasion he has taken items and been stopped on leaving. All the items have been recovered

“He has 49 convictions for 91 offences, and most are for theft or kindred offences.

Bungling shop thief Mark Dagg has been jailed by magistrates.

“The main difficulty that he finds himself in is that at the time he was subject to a suspended sentence order.”

Greg Flaxen, defending Dagg, who pleaded guilty to four shop thefts, said: “These are extremely low value shop thefts.

“They are clearly not sophisticated because he keeps getting caught.

“When he is stopped, he waits and doesn’t go anywhere. He waits until officers turn up.

“He’s been addicted for some time to crack cocaine. It’s £20 a day, it’s been going on for years.”

Magistrates activated the full four weeks of the suspended sentence and gave him an additional two-week jail term, to run consecutively, for the new offences.

He was also ordered to pay a £128 victim surcharge.