after going on a Christmas crime spree.

Cocaine addict Charles Ebbin was yesterday sentenced to five years in prison after confessing to six business break-ins in December. Ebbin, 40, of Friswell's Lane, asked for a further 19 cases of burglary to be taken into consideration.

Ebbin was released from jail in October last year after serving two-and-a-half years for similar offences.

But within two months of being released he was back into bad habits, committing a number of burglaries to feed his drug addiction.

Ebbin's crime spree came to an end after he tried to sell some welding rods to a King Street blacksmith on December 27.

The blacksmith, Artie Black, refused to buy the rods and became suspicious, knowing the goods were only sold from the Tools and Equipment store on North Street. When he contacted the store he discovered that it had been broken into earlier that day.

Ebbin also admitted breaking into Probation Services and Mutual Insurance Ltd.

between December 16 and 17.

The spree continued with break-ins at Tango Multimedia, North Rock Communications and Carlsen Philip's law chambers. In total Ebbin's Christmas criminal career netted him more than $3,000.

Before being sentenced by Chief Justice Austin Ward yesterday, Ebbin, who is single and unemployed, asked for psychiatric help to break the vicious circle of drugs, thieving and incarceration, although he denied that he was a serious abuser.

"I keep going to prison and then come out and steal,'' he said. "I feel that you could help me through psychiatric treatment or counselling. Instead of being locked up all the time I could be put on some sort of programme.'' But Chief Justice Ward replied: "Once you're outside you are a menace to the public -- very few people can claim to have broken into 25 buildings and that's what you did in half a month.

"You are lucky that someone didn't catch you in one of the buildings and put a proper beating on you.

"As soon as you get out you go and break into people's places. They obviously didn't give you enough treatment in prison. If they did you wouldn't get involved.

"If you were not a heavy drug addict you wouldn't keep breaking into these places. You have got to forget about your past and look into the future. The question is, what are you going to do about yourself? "From your record you have had all sorts of treatments. You have had probation and ordered to attend St. Brendan's as an out patient. In 1995, you were given psychiatric treatment and in 1997 you had psychiatric and drug treatment. Everything that can be done by way of treatment you have been offered.

"I am going to give you five years imprisonment and I am ordering that you be given psychiatric and psychological treatment and that you also be treated for your drug addiction.'' Ebbin's case illustrates the `revolving door' syndrome highlighted by a top Police chief in The Royal Gazette last week.

On Friday, Det. Supt. Vic Richmond argued that there are clear inadequacies in the prison's rehabilitation process and that a small band of prolific offenders were immediately returning to a life of crime after being released from prison.