A 28-YEAR-OLD Pensnett man who wrote off a car he stole from the driveway of a house in Kingswinford has been jailed for 42 weeks.

Judge Amjad Nawaz at Wolverhampton Crown Court told Brett Spittle he had an "appalling" criminal record.

He said Spittle, of Avon Road, had been the subject of a suspended prison term at the time and he had repeatedly failed to take advantage of the chances he had been given by courts in the past.

The judge told him: "You drive cars belonging to someone else and you drive dangerously."

Spittle admitted aggravated vehicle taking and driving without insurance or a licence and he was further banned from the roads for 30 months.

Sally Cairns, prosecuting, said a neighbour spotted Spittle trying to force a door on the Vauxhall Corsa in the early hours and he demanded: "What are you doing?"

Spittle then smashed a side window in the vehicle before diving in head first and driving off at speed, the court was told The Vauxhall was found abandoned a short time later but with further damage and it had to be written off by insurers, added Miss Cairns.

Gurdeep Garcha, defending Spittle whose previous convictions went back to 1997, said it was "one night of madness" and he had taken the vehicle to go for a drive round with friends.

The judge jailed Spittle for 16 weeks for the offences before the court and ruled he should serve a further 26 weeks for breaching the suspended sentence order imposed for the production of cannabis.