A PROLIFIC thief, who hit a security guard over the head with a lump of wood after being caught stealing, has been jailed. Christopher Coulton, 24, was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison for theft and common assault for the attack in the Galleria, Hatfield,

A PROLIFIC thief, who hit a security guard over the head with a lump of wood after being caught stealing, has been jailed.

Christopher Coulton, 24, was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison for theft and common assault for the attack in the Galleria, Hatfield, on April 20 this year.

Having pocketed almost �50 worth of goods from the Galleria's JD Sports and French Connection stores, Coulton, attempted to flee a guard who had approached him.

Following a scuffle, he hit the guard over the head with a lump of wood he picked up off the ground.

At St Albans Crown Court this week, judge Marie Catterson said Coulton, from Salisbury Road, WGC, had "a long and unhappy record for a variety of offences".

"A number of the offences were of low level violence and others of dishonesty," she said.

"Assaulting a security guard is really quite serious and calls for a sentence of imprisonment."

For more on this story, get this week's edition of the Welwyn & Hatfield Times, out tomorrow (Wednesday).