An Irvine man has been jailed for a £7,000 jewellery heist - just weeks after being released early from a previous prison term.

Kevin McElholm, 33, was freed from prison on December 29 last year - and embarked on a theft spree which saw him steal stock worth a total of nearly £8,000 from a handful of businesses.

Just two weeks after regaining his freedom, he stormed a branch of high street jewellers H Samuel - and made off with jewellery worth £7,198.

He targeted the jewellers, in King Street, Kilmarnock, on January 16.

The theft was reported to police and McElholm was tracked down later.

By the time officers caught up with him, he had managed to get rid of the lion’s share of his loot.

But some of the items he stole were recovered, meaning the loss to the firm was £4,599.

The day before the jewellers heist, January 15, McElholm raided the Boots store in Irvine’s Rivergate Shopping Centre, stealing razors totalling £166.96.

A week later, on January 22, 2018, McElholm went out robbing again, targeting Marks and Spencers at the Riverway Retail Park, this time swiping meat worth a total of £278.68.

And, on February 2, 2018, he decided to do his shoplifting at Tesco, in the Riverway Retail Park, stealing alcohol worth £243.50.

That took the total value of McElholm’s spree to £7,877.14.

The details emerged this week when McElholm, who is originally from Irvine but was of no fixed abode after being released from prison, appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court over his crime spree.

Prosecutors split the offences into two cases, charging him with the jewellers heist on its own and the other offences as a separate case.

Defence solicitor Sandy Currie struck a deal with prosecutors which saw McElholm pleading guilty to the H Samuel theft and shoplifting from M&S, Tesco and Boots - in exchange for the other four charges being dropped.

The lawyer explained: “He is 33 now and is of no fixed abode.

“He was released shortly before New Year - on December 29 - and was living rough.”

He also said that heroin addict McElholm steals to fund his addiction, despite receiving methadone daily in a bid to get clean, adding: “That is the crux of this matter.

“It is all, and he accepts that, his fault - he is the author of his own misfortune.”

Sheriff Iona McDonald said McElholm was “very lucky” the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service decided to prosecute him via summary rather than solemn procedure.

That meant the maximum jail term she could impose for the jewellers’ raid was 12 months in prison - for what she termed the theft of “a susbtantial sum of jewellery.”

And, due to Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, the sheriff had to give McElholm a discount on his sentence, due to his early guilty plea.

She caged him for eight months for the H Samuel raid, reduced from 12 as he admitted his guilt. She also jailed him for four months, reduced from six, for the shoplifting charges.

She ordered the sentence to run consecutively, meaning he was given a total of 12 months behind bars for his £7,877.14 crime spree.

McElholm, then 30, was caged back in 2015 for bursting into the Spar store in Irvine’s High Street, grappling with a female assistant and escaping with the entire till and takings.

He was jailed for two years and three months for that offence after pleading guilty to a charge of assault and robbery.