A SOUTHAMPTON man in prison for burglary has come forward to confess to other crimes in an effort to wipe his slate clean.

Christopher Bryan admitted to PC Andy Bates two acts of burglary he committed between January and April this year.

Winchester Crown Court heard how Bryan wanted to wipe his slate clean and feared if he didn’t come forward forensic evidence would be used to link him to the crimes anyway.

Bryan, from Shirley in Southampton, pleaded guilty to the counts of burglary, as well as other counts of taking a vehicle without consent and theft from a motor vehicle.

The 36-year-old was released from prison in January after serving part of a five-year sentence from 2007.

But he was arrested in April for committing 29 separate offences including seven burglaries.

He was sentenced to six years.

Sentencing, Judge Guy Boney, QC, said: “The truth of the matter is that you have funded a drug habit for years by committing burglary. Had the court known about these extra offences during his trial I should think he would have got more than six years.”

The judge gave Bryan a five-and- a-half year sentence to run concurrently with the jail time he is already serving.