Lincoln Crown Court heard how John Frame took the cement mixer from the locked yard of a depot at Kirkby on Bain.

The vehicle was hot-wired before Frame set off along the A158 heading towards Lincoln.

The Lincolnshire Echo reported that Phil Howes, prosecuting, said Frame was seen by Police Community Support Officer Keith Briggs as he drove the vehicle along the A158 at Baumber.

He said: “The mixer was out of control and spinning across the road.

“PCSO Briggs had to brake hard in order to stop safely. Frame then got out of the mixer and headed into a field.”

PCSO Briggs pursued Frame for about 300 yards before detaining him and waiting for police reinforcements to arrive.

Frame, 33, of Lilac Avenue, Knottingley, West Yorkshire was jailed for two years and banned from driving for 18 months after admitting theft of the cement mixer from a depot at Kirkby on Bain, driving while disqualified and careless driving on 14 December last year.

The court heard he had never passed a driving test and had convictions for 130 previous offences, including 29 for driving while disqualified.

Judge Sean Morris told Frame: “The public would rightly be outraged if you did not go directly to prison for committing this offence.

“You are a professional thief. It will cost to send you to custody, but at least it means that law-abiding people will not wake up to find their property gone thanks to you.

“It will give the public a rest from you.”

Richard Canning, defending, said Frame agreed to drive the mixer after he was offered £100 at a time when he was short of cash for family Christmas presents.

Canning said: “I concede he has an appalling record. He has been on heroin since he was 14, although he has been drug-free since March 2009.

“He simply went back to his old ways to get some money quickly.”