A former prolific burglar has praised the Avon and Somerset Prolific Offenders Scheme which has helped him put his life back on track.

Mark Fenton, aged 28, used to commit up to three burglaries a day in the North Somerset area.

He fell into a period of crime and drugs after leaving the parachute regiment, following an injury

He said: “ When I was 16 I used to do cannabis recreationally. However when I returned home when I was 20 all my friends were on heroin.

“It wasn’t really a case of can’t beat them join them but overtime I succumbed to it”

Mark said neither him or his friends knew the effects of heroin but overtime he found himself homeless and with a £60 a day habit.

“I got into crime through desperation, I was walking around ill and I couldn’t see anyway of getting any money. I was only thinking in the short term and would break in steal anything I could use to get drugs with.

“After I had done it once I just kept repeating the same day over and over – get up, get money for drugs, score and then be unconscious until the next time.

“One time I woke up and was surrounded by about £15,000 worth of power tools and I had no idea where I got them from.”

In 2002 he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for burglary and handling stolen goods.

When he came out he went on a downward spiral and when he was arrested he was put in touch with ASPOS.

Mark agreed to take part in the scheme alongside which he was sentenced to a Drug Treatment and Testing Order in April 2003, for further burglary offences.

During this order he was required to report to ASPOS staff at the local police station up to four times each week, when he would undertake offending behaviour
programmes and be -*test*-('")ed for drugs misuse.

Probation and Police Service staff, as part of ASPOS, worked together closely in order to supervise, monitor, control and encourage Mark to succeed.

Mark also had to attend for drugs treatment and counselling with specialist agencies in order to meet his individual needs.

Once the scheme helped Mark get free of drugs the focus shifted to relapse prevention work and what he wanted to achieve in future, specifically regarding employment.

Due to the good progress being made ASPOS funded college courses, which in turn led to Mark achieving professional qualifications in outdoor pursuits and also linked him in with an agency, where he gained valuable work experience in this field of employment.

Mark added: “The scheme helped me identify what I wanted to do with my life and how I was going to achieve it.

“There was always someone to talk to which is what I needed sometimes. Everyone goes through temptation with drugs but the -*test*-('")ing they did was a deterrent to stop me using.”

Mark is has now stopped his offending and in August 2005 had his DTTO revoked at Bristol Crown Court due to the significant level of progress achieved.

He has now also gained full time employment.

Rachel Austin, area manager of ASPOS, said: “ASPOS concentrates on those offenders for whom other interventions including custody have not succeeded in helping them break the cycle of their offending.

“Once identified as a prolific offender by probation and the police, they have the choice to either work with the multi-agency team to address their offending or if they refuse they are subjected to increased monitoring resulting in early arrest.

“Prolific offenders are also subject to rigorous enforcement of court orders and failure to comply can result in a very rapid return to prison, sometimes this can only take a few hours.

“We are very proud of Mark’s success in turning his life around and we hope he will prove a good example to other offenders to show the benefits of complying with the scheme.”