A THREE-STRIKES burglar who stole a £600 parrot from a family and then sold it to feed his heroin addiction has been jailed.

Jason Pritchard put the African grey bird in a shoebox after a raid on a house in the Blackwood area, prosecutor Lowri Wynn Morgan said.

Cardiff Crown Court heard how the prolific criminal, with more than 100 offences to his name, kept the parrot for a few days.

Miss Wynn Morgan said the 38-year-old Pritchard had bought an £80 cage from a pet shop in Bargoed to keep it in before selling the tropical bird to a drug dealer.

Judge Nicola Jones heard how the parrot was eventually bought by a woman in Cardiff who then saw on social media that the creature had been stolen.

She contacted the victims and the bird was restored to the family.

Pritchard, formerly from the Blackwood area, but now of no fixed abode, admitted carrying out the burglary on October 29, 2016.

He also stole an iPhone, PlayStation 3 and a laptop during that break-in.

Pritchard also asked for another burglary to be taken into consideration after a raid on a house in the Bargoed area in which he took money from a purse and a laptop.

That offence was committed on November 28, 2016.

Miss Wynn Morgan said this conviction was his third for burglary and that he had 36 previous convictions for 113 offences.

The court heard he had recently been released from prison for harassment and had walked to Bargoed police station to confess the burglaries in a “highly intoxicated” state.

When he was taken to Ystrad Mynach police station, Miss Wynn Morgan said: “The defendant had shouted, ‘Let me out of here, I’m going to stab someone.’ When he was asked who that remark was aimed at, he replied, ‘Anyone!’”

Paul Hewitt, mitigating, said his client was a drug addict when he carried out the 2016 raids but added: “He has kicked his heroin habit.”

His barrister told how Pritchard had been suffering from mental health issues and had admitted the offences.

Judge Jones told the defendant he had an “appalling record” and said stealing a family pet would have been “upsetting” for the victims.

She jailed him for just under two-and-a-half years.