A LONG-TERM heroin addict who was given one last chance to clean up by a judge has been sent to prison after failing to stay off the drug.

Andrew Lennon, 28, had his sentence for shoplifting, two burglaries and failing to attend a drug assessment suspended a month ago – on the condition he kept clean.

His mother, Brenda, appea-red in the Oxford Mail two years ago to tell of her anguish at having to throw him out, and subsequently when he went missing in July.

But Oxford Crown Court yesterday heard Lennon, an addict for seven years, left his bail hostel, a breach of his bail conditions, to take drugs. He was remanded in custody on September 4.

If he succeeded he would have been placed on a residential rehabilitation course – but was yesterday jailed for 18 months.

Judge Julian Hall said: “Well, Andrew Lennon, you blew it.

“I was prepared to give you a chance and you threw it back in my face.”

The court had been told that Lennon, a former trainee chef, began taking drugs after being stabbed.

His mother, 48, of North Oxford, said: “I know it sounds horrible but prison gives him time to get into the system.

“He’s completely different when he’s there. He goes in and does what he’s supposed to do. But it isn’t the answer, it’s like putting a sticking plaster on the problem.”

She said he was being beaten up with baseball bats every day over an £800 drug debt, and stole to pay dealers. Yet she said she could not condone his actions.

Mrs Lennon said: “An addiction really is an illness.

“It makes a person say and do things they would never really do.

“Addiction can affect anyone. It’s just so terrible. It’s an awful disease, and it is a disease. When somebody ends up with that they should get help with it.”

Lennon, of no fixed address, earlier admitted two counts of shoplifting, two burglaries and failing to attend a drug assessment.

He stole Mini Cheddars, onion rings, sherry and a carrier bag from the Co-op in Summertown, Oxford, on May 26; a bottle of Jack Daniel’s from a city centre newsagent’s on June 10; a laptop from a room at Lincoln College on July 13 and a bicycle from the car park of the zoology department of Oxford University on the same day.