A bus obessive with a “compulsion” to steal passenger vehicles walked free from court yesterday after a judge said his problem might never be cured.

Nicholas Attwell took a £220,000 coach from a depot in Witney and drove it across the country.

On one occasion the 48-year-old — who has 123 previous convictions, mostly for vehicle-related crime — stopped a bus he had taken to pick up an elderly woman and give her a lift home.

Attwell broke into an office at McLeans Coaches in Windrush Park Road, Witney, last October, to take the keys to the coach before driving it to Herefordshire.

Brian Payne, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said: “He says he has a compulsion to drive vehicles.”

He added Attwell’s obsession dated back to his first offence in 1977 and he had stopped committing vehicle crime for a while after being given a free bus pass by his doctor.

Attwell, of Christchurch, Dorset, admitted burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, taking a vehicle without consent, two charges of driving while disqualified, two charges of driving without insurance, going equipped for taking a motor vehicle and theft of a motor vehicle.

Hugh Williams, defending, said: “He doesn’t have a specific mental disorder but he clearly does have this compulsion.”

Judge Mary Jane Mowat gave Attwell a 12-month community order, 250 hours of unpaid work, 30 weeks of education, training and employment courses, a six-month curfew from 7pm to 7am and banned him from driving for two years.

She said: “It seems to be unaddressable. Everything has been tried. Your case is quite extraordinary.”