A thief has avoided going straight back to jail despite being caught trying to steal £200 worth of perfume just two days after being released from prison.

Kelly Foster was released from HMP Peterborough on Thursday but instead of using her £40 discharge money to head back to her home in Blackbrook Road, Loughborough, she travelled to Colchester with a friend she had made in jail.

The pal had promised she had somewhere to stay but when they arrived it turned out she was homeless and the pair were left sleeping on the streets.

Foster, 33, spent the rest of her cash on food and had just 15p left when she decided she wanted to head back to the Midlands so decided to try and steal perfume from Debenhams in the town centre which she planned to sell to make quick cash.

But during the attempted theft on Saturday, Foster was spotted stuffing bottles into her pockets by security staff at the department store and they confronted her outside.

She was arrested and admitted theft at Colchester Magistrates' Court.

But despite reoffending so quickly after being released, the bench decided to suspend her four week prison sentence for a year.

She must pay a £115 victim surcharge, but also complete a drug rehabilitation requirement programme in order to try and kick her addiction to heroin and crack cocaine.

Paul Baker, mitigating, said Foster did not spend any money on drugs after being released from prison.

He said: "There was nothing terribly sophisticated about what she did.

"She has spent a number of years battling addiction to Class A drugs - she has been addicted to heroin since the age of 16 and much of her offending has been to pay for that.

"In 2018 she has already been to prison a number of time but left Peterborough last week with a methadone script.

"She ran out of money and needed funds got get back to the Loughborough area."