By STEPHEN HACKWELL stephen.hackwell@nqe.com A PROLIFIC burglar has walked free from court after a judge ruled it would be “unjust” to jail him.

Michael Grey, of Saffron Drive, Basildon, admitted breaking into a house in Codenham Green, Basildon, in September last year and stealing a watch and kitchen knives worth £315.

The 23-year-old, who stole to fund his drug habit, has been jailed in the past for similar offences.

However, Judge John Lodge decided Grey would only fall back into crime if he was sent to prison and ordered him to undergo a drug rehabilition course instead.

He said: “The right sentence, according to the guidelines, is one to three years.

“But there comes a point when one has to see it is unjust to continue locking someone up, because we then do not address the root cause of your offending.”

Under the Government’s “three strikes” rule, burglars who break into three or more homes should be jailed for a minimum of three years.

The judge is only allowed to breach those guidelines when he believes it would be “unjust” to impose such a sentence.

Grey will have to live at a drug rehabilitation centre in Weymouth, Dorset, for the next three months and attend further sessions for another three months after that.

He will report to probation officers for 18 months as part of his community order.

Handing down the sentence at Southend Crown Court, Mr Lodge said: “I am deliberately imposing a community order because, if you breach it, I am not limited to the 12 months in prison that I would be limited to under a suspended sentence.

“If you blow this chance I have given you, I will have to give you three years.”