A thief who stole two motorcycles in the span of a week was sent to prison for a year.

Kinsley Campbell had a six-month suspended sentence activated, and was ordered to serve an additional six months in prison for the crime.

The 41-year-old was also fined $1,400 and banned from driving all vehicles for six months, after pleading guilty in Magistrates' Court to four traffic offences.

He admitted two charges of driving without a valid licence, and one charge each of disobeying a traffic sign and riding an unlicenced cycle. Crown counsel Larissa Burgess said the first complainant mistakenly left the keys to his $4,000 cycle in the ignition after he parked it on Front Street on January 11.

When he returned it was nowhere to be found. The bike was later discovered, with its handle bars locked, in the parking lot of Arnold's Tile on Mill Reach Lane in Pembroke.

The second theft occurred on January 19. The complainant left the bike parked overnight at the Sandys Boat Club. When he returned at approximately 5.45 a.m. the $1,500 bike was gone.

On January 22 Campbell was stopped by Police on Middle Road, Warwick riding a cycle that had been reported as stolen.

When confronted by the officers Campbell admitted that he had stolen two bikes.

In court, Campbell begged Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner for leniency and claimed to be trying to turn his life around.

"I took the bikes to look for a job," he said. "I humbly apologise, I am really trying. I recently got a job, now have a roof over my head and am back in school. Sending me back to prison right now that I have these things going for me is not going to help me.

"I feels good now but I was really hurting before I was living in a pump room. It hurts to be a grown man and to be homeless and not be able to provide for my daughter. I am asking the court for leniency and to give me two years of probation rather than sending me back to prison. I fell victim to my own foolishness. I have no one to blame for this but myself. But I have never hurt anybody, it is not like I am breaking into people's houses or businesses."

The magistrate cited several past convictions where judges had been lenient with Campbell.

"In 1987 you were convicted of drug possession, in 1993 you assaulted a Police officer," said Mr. Warner. "In 1999 you were handed a six-month sentence for stealing a motorcycle and items from someone at the beach. You were given two years' probation in 2006 for breaking and entering and in 2009, a six-month suspended sentence for cycle theft which is still active. So do not try and give me or the public the impression that you are some kind of victim here."

Mr. Warner activated the six-month suspended sentence and handed Campbell an additional six months for the latest two thefts. Because Campbell had accumulated over 13 demerit points he also received an automatic six-month driving ban.