A Sunderland shoplifter in debt to drug dealers pinched more than £2,300 of goods from shops as far from home as Northumberland and the edge of the Lake District.

Dennis Chalk, 40, travelled almost 90 miles to Penrith and Kirkby Stephen, both in Cumbria, on November 11 last year to target four stores.

Chalk, of Portrush Road, and a woman stole a minimum of £597 from branches of Boots, Co-op, Original Factory Store and Marks & Spencer.

His haul included 30 bottles of shampoo, totalling £350, three gingerbread men dolls, valued at £45, and £202 of port and toilet rolls.

The Silverlink shopping centre, on North Tyneside, was among Sunderland shoplifter Dennis Chalk's targets.

placeholder image — The Silverlink shopping centre, on North Tyneside, was among Sunderland shoplifter Dennis Chalk's targets.

Meanwhile, in the preceding three months and one week afterwards, he single-handedly stole £1,793 of perfume in nine thefts from two Next stores.

Eight were at the retailer’s outlet at the Silverlink shopping centre, in Wallsend, between August 5 and November 18.

Chalk, who owes the courts £16,000 from past offending matters, also targeted its branch in Stanley Terrace, Morpeth, on November 13.

At South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court, Chalk was jailed for 16 weeks, a sentence suspended for 18 months, after he admitted 13 counts of shop theft.

He also pleaded guilty to a single count of failing to surrender to custody in North Shields on January 16.

Magistrates told him his “pattern of shoplifting is simply appalling”.

Prosecutor Paul Anderson said: “He has 21 previous convictions from 31 offences. But this plethora of offences over these three months signifies that there was something going on in his life.”

Chalk’s August haul from Next at Silverlink included stealing £549 of perfume in five thefts.

On October 27 he returned and made off with £204 of perfume.

He struck again on November 14 and November 18, taking a total of £640 of perfume.

And on November 13 he targeted Next’s Morpeth shop, where he stole £400 of perfume and shower gels.

Alastair Naismith, defending, said: “He owed money to people for various debts and was struggling to fund those debts.

“It was the run up to Christmas. They are all items that people may want to buy from him.

“He says that he’s abstaining from drugs and alcohol and says that his drug debts are cleared, which would support that there’s been no other offending.”

Magistrates ordered Chalk to pay a total of £2,001 in compensation.