A MAN found drunkenly slouched in the driver’s seat of a Ford Fiesta had stolen it in a burglary hours earlier.

Ricky Clanfield was jailed for a year at Oxford Crown Court yesterday for a series of offences.

Prosecutor Tim Boswell said the 30-year-old had split from his girlfriend on August 3 and was out in Chipping Norton that evening, after drinking heavily.

Clanfield broke into a house in Alfred Terrace and stole a handbag and the keys to a Ford Fiesta.

The next day a police officer saw the car being driven towards Chipping Norton town centre and pulled it over.

The officer found Clanfield “slouched in the driver’s seat, with bloodshot eyes and looking spaced out”. Clanfield was found to be just over twice the drink-drive limit.

Clanfield, who admitted drink-driving, burglary, taking a vehicle without consent, driving without insurance and driving without a licence, has two previous convictions for drink-driving and one for burglary.

Stephen Parker, defending, said his client, of no fixed address, had beaten a heroin addiction but struggled to deal with his alcohol problem, which was exacerbated by the death of his father and death of a friend in a car crash.

Clanfield was jailed for a year and banned from driving for four years.