A 'professional criminal' who stole bank cards and their details from Bath rail passengers has been jailed for more than three years.
Cosmetic bag ReplicaChristopher McNeil targeted women's handbags on trains to and from London before going on spending sprees with the stolen information.
And, after hearing how the 27-year-old had a long history of similar offending, a judge at Swindon crown court told him it was time for a 'substantial prison term'.
Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told the court that McNeil would not only steal purses and cash from handbags left under seats but would also note down bank card details.
He said the first offence took place on September 24 last year when a woman travelling from Stroud to London noticed her purse missing as the train approached Paddington.
The bag had been stored under her seat and her credit card was used soon after to get pounds300 in cash from the Abbey Stadium at Blunsdon.
A few weeks later, a woman had been travelling from Bath to Reading with her bag under her seat when she noticed pounds25 had been taken from it.
Other items had also gone and it later turned out that McNeil had taken the details of her bank card which had been used at a John Lewis store.
On the same day another woman was travelling from Swindon to London when her purse and its contents were stolen and the cards used to buy railway tickets and store vouchers.
Mr Meeke said shortly before Christmas, a woman travelling to Bath from London had her cards and cash stolen in the same way.
Her cards were used for taxi fares and other spending including stays at a five-star hotel in Cardiff.
McNeil, of Islandmead, Eldene, in Swindon, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft, ten of fraud and two of possessing an article for use in fraud.
He also asked for a further six matters to be taken into consideration.
Fake Mulberry HandbagsRob Ross, defending, said his client was a well educated man but had offended as a result of his drug problem.
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He said that if the addiction could be tackled then he would be unlikely to offend in future.
Mr Ross said: "He is the sort of person who I want to sometimes get hold of and shake him because he has wasted a good education and a good brain on drugs."
Since he had been in prison on remand, Mr Ross said his client had got off drugs and done well and had also been deemed suitable for a drug rehabilitation requirement.
Imposing a three year and three month sentence, Judge Douglas Field said: "What you did last year you have done many times before and looking at your record and the circumstances of these latest offences makes me conclude that you are a persistent and professional criminal.
"All different sorts of disposals have been tried before; drug treatment and testing order, suspended sentence, community rehabilitation order, and here we are again in exactly the same pattern of behaviour.
"The public needs some protection, particularly the travelling public, from you and I am afraid it is time a substantial period of custody must be imposed."