A homeless man has been jailed for breaking an order to stay away from Okehampton and going to visit his ex-partner’s home in the town.

David Heslop was forbidden from any contact with the woman and had already broken a restraining order four times before the latest offence last September.

He was banned from entering Okehampton and Belstone when he was given a suspended sentence for a previous breach a week before he resumed contact with the woman, who was heavily pregnant at the time.

Police arrested him driving her father’s Jeep, which neighbours in Okehampton had seen him and the woman using together between September 14 and 16.

Heslop, aged 36, previously of Beaworthy but now homeless, admitted breaching a restraining order and a suspended sentence and was jailed for a total of a year and eight months by Judge Anna Richardson at Exeter Crown Court.

She told him: “You breached this order only a few days after I imposed a suspended sentence for breaches of the same restraining order, which prevented contact or from going to Okehampton.

“You breached the order in two ways, you were in contact with her; and all this was in Okehampton. The culpability in this case is at the highest level because of your persistence. This is your fifth contravention.”

Miss Victoria Bastock, prosecuting, said the woman’s father had reported that his Jeep Cherokee had been taken from his home and a neighbour living near Summering Close in Okehampton had seen her, Heslop, and another friend getting out of it.

She was later found in a very upset and tired state at her mother’s house and Heslop was arrested in the Jeep, but not prosecuted for that because it was not known if he had taken it.

 He told police he contacted his former partner because he was homeless and had nowhere to go.

Miss Zoe Kuyken, defending, said Heslop did not have time to benefit from working with probation under the previous suspended sentence but has started addressing his drug use in prison and is keen to do other rehabilitation.

He plans to move to Torbay after his release because he believes it will be easier to find accommodation there which he can afford to pay for out of he Personal Independence Payment benefits.