BUNGLING shoplifters have been jailed after raiding a store just 25 days after appearing in court over a botched supermarket raid.

Anthony Fearn and girlfriend Laura Ord were spared prison last month — despite a break-in at Tesco in Westhoughton leaving the store with a bill for more than £5,000.

Sniffer dogs tracked a trail of blood left by Fearn to a nearby estate after he had suffered a serious leg injury while smashing a window with bricks and a breeze block.

But after being given suspended sentences for the first raid the couple struck for a second time at Asda in Atherton less than a month later.

They were seen by staff there in June 1 loading two shopping baskets with meat and brazenly walking out of the store.

A staff member then spied them climbing into a black Renault Twingo before being driven away from the store by a third accomplice, Brant Chadwick.

The car was tracked by police later that day to Chadwick's home in Knutshaw Crescent, Hunger Hill.

The trio were all in the car and police discovered £40 of meat which had been stolen from Asda.

Ord, aged 32, and Fearn, aged 30, both of Glebe Street, Westhoughton, were jailed for six months at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court.

Chadwick, aged 28, was given a community order for the theft charge, and must wear an electronic tag for the next 12 weeks, as well as pay £295 in costs.

At Bolton Magistrates Court last month, the couple's defence counsel Jane Novas-Morell said their theft was borne out of desperation.

The Tesco raid at 4.45am on April 14 saw Ord fill a handbag with bottles of spirits worth £115 which they planned to sell to raise cash to buy drugs.

But the trail of blood from Fearn's injury allowed police to track the pair to an area of wasteland at nearby Greensbridge Gardens within 15 minutes of the incident.

Tesco had to pay £2,500 to make sure the area was properly cleaned, and another £2,864 to fix the damaged window.

Ms Novas-Morell said: “These offences represent a crisis point in their lives. These are serious offences, and perhaps they demonstrate the desperation these people find themselves in.”