Northampton criminal's 165th and 166th offences see him return to jail

Victor Moss was let off with a suspended sentence when he was caught stealing £13,000 worth of cigarettes in 2014.

But on November 29, 2015 a plainclothes police officer spotted the 47-year-old of South Holme Court, Thorplands, carrying out a drug deal in the doorway of a premises in Northampton.

Despite trying to throw 13 the wraps of crack cocaine and 22 wraps of heroin he was carrying away, the officer arrested him.

At Northampton Crown Court yesterday, Moss was sentenced on two counts of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply.

Sentencing him to three-and-a-half years in total, after re-activating the punishment for the cigarette theft, judge Timothy Smith said: "You are someone, as you well know, who has built up a considerable criminal record.

"You have recorded against you, 164 offences and 47 previous convictions."

Judge Smith said that between 2004 and 2011, Moss had managed to stay "significantly out of trouble" though he soon began to return to minor offending in the form of dishonesty and driving offences.

Mitigating for him Rebecca Penfold said Moss, who has a stent fitted, had recently suffered from poor health.

He had only recently become reacquainted with his biological family and the court heard how his mother was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterwards.

Miss Penfold said: "He is a man who has been in and out of the justice system."