A MAN said to be drinking up to a litre of vodka a night plus beer was allegedly paid just £50 to take part in a raid which netted computers worth nearly £5,000. Craig Brigden, of Marymead Drive, Stevenage, had chalked up a long list of convictions for sh

A MAN said to be drinking up to a litre of vodka a night plus beer was allegedly paid just £50 to take part in a raid which netted computers worth nearly £5,000.

Craig Brigden, of Marymead Drive, Stevenage, had chalked up a long list of convictions for shoplifting, theft and driving offences.

Drug and alcohol problems were behind them, his lawyer, Eleanor Mawrey, told Luton Crown Court.

She added: "He accepts he needs help from someone to guide him and get him off drink and drugs.

"His desire is to become clean and sober and he needs help with that."

Although sending him to prison now might mean he is clean in the short term, said Miss Mawrey, his problems would have to be addressed on release and she urged that he be given a community-based sentence so that he could receive help.

Brigden, 22, appeared at court on Friday to be sentenced on a charge of burglary.

He and another man broke into a doctors' surgery in Bedford using a crowbar.

The computers stolen had never been recovered.

Miss Mawrey said Brigden had been paid just £50 by the main culprit to smash the window.

She added: "That was the level of his involvement and he didn't reap the benefits of the sale of the computers if that's what indeed happened to them."

Brigden had left a telltale fingerprint behind which led to his capture.

Judge Gareth Davies jailed him for 15 months, saying that an aggravated feature of the offence was the fact that a doctors' surgery and health centre had been targeted. He said that the removal of computers would have led to much confusion within the centre.