A MAN angry with his girlfriend stole two bottles of vodka in order to “go to prison”.

Gavin Minns had been arguing with his partner at their home in Donnington Bridge Road, Oxford, when she told him she wished he had been put in prison.

Minns, 35, had avoided jail on September 4 when he was handed a community order at Oxford Crown Court for a dishonesty offence.

Prosecutor Clare Barclay told Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday he went to the Co-Op store in Templars Square, Oxford, on Wednesday with the intention to steal and to be arrested.

She said: “He told officers he wanted to get detained and arrested to make a point to his girlfriend.”

Minns stole two bottles of vodka, worth £38.50, but the court was told he acted in a very obvious way when he took the alcohol.

Magistrates heard that he was intending to get stopped as he left the store.

In mitigation Julian Richards said: “He wanted to demonstrate that she didn’t really want him to go to prison.

“So he committed an offence that would be of no benefit to him and in a way in which he would be caught, in the hope that she would be informed and appreciate that wasn’t what she wanted to happen.”

Mr Richards said his aim had been achieved as he was held in custody overnight.

Magistrates ordered him to carry out 50 hours of unpaid work, to be completed within 12 months.

They also ordered him to pay a £60 victims’ surcharge and £50 costs.