A MAN who stole a sandwich and a packet of rolls from a Dumbarton supermarket will have to spend the next nine months carrying out his punishment for the crime.

Thomas Melvin committed the theft at the Asda store at the St James Retail Park on May 23 last year.

But 32-year-old Melvin made his situation worse four weeks later by breaching a condition of bail when he left his then home in Dumbarton’s Townend Road during curfew hours.

And he was in trouble again on September 16 when he failed to turn up for a hearing on the case at Dumbarton Sheriff Court.

Melvin, now living at Crescent Court in Dalmuir, was back in the dock on Thursday to face sentencing for the three offences – and when a sheriff said the court’s patience with him was at an end.

Melvin’s solicitor, Scott Adair, told the court there had been problems with his client’s attendance with social workers and with his completion of unpaid hours imposed as part of a community payback order for a previous offence.

But Mr Adair said: “He can do a community payback order. He consents to doing unpaid work, and he would consent to a restriction of liberty order.

“Your Lordship knows from past history that he can do such an order, albeit with assistance from the unpaid work team.”

Mr Adair said there were no other cases outstanding against his client.

Sheriff William Gallacher said: “There are a variety of issues I have to consider.

“Do the offences justify action? Yes, they do. I then have to think that, standing his record and the nature of the offences, do I have options other than sending him to prison? On the face of it, I don’t.”

Mr Adair said: “He knows, if he doesn’t do unpaid work, what is going to happen.”

Opting not to impose a jail term, at least for now, Sheriff Gallacher told Melvin to carry out one hundred hours for the Asda theft, and a concurrent one hundred hours for the bail breach and failure to appear, within the next nine months.