A CAR thief with 220 convictions returned to a life of crime just two days after promising to ‘retire’.

Now an MP and campaigners have slammed the suspended jail sentence given to career criminal Joseph Farelly Phillips, claiming it gives out the wrong message.

Phillips had told a court he was retiring and starting a new life at 40 after admitting theft and attempted theft.

He also asked for 13 other offences to be taken into consideration during a hearing last month.

But 48 hours after being released on bail for the offences he was stealing from cars again.

He has now admitted a further theft and asked for three more offences to be considered.

Andrew Stephenson, MP for Pendle, said the country faced a “real problem” with career criminals like Phillips.

“Persistent offenders cause misery for many hundreds of people,” he said.

“When police finally get them to the courts they are not imposing the sentences they should be.

“The courts should be a lot tougher on sentences for persistent offenders, and under the new Government we want to be in a position to make sure these people are sent to jail.”

Phillips, of Glenroy Avenue, Colne, who is an amphetamine addict, had been locked up following his arrest for the theft committed on bail.

Magistrates gave him an 18-week jail term, suspended for 12 months but said he would have faced jail had he not pleaded guilty.

Police said he struck regularly in the Vivary Bridge area, particularly around Colne’s North Valley Estate, where he lived.

Coun John David, leader of Pendle Council, said: “This sentence seems quite extraordinary.

“The magistrates are under instructions I suppose and we don’t know all the facts but it does seem bizarre.”

In August 2003 Phillips almost lost his life committing another car crime, when he cut the suspension cable instead of the fuel pipe while trying to siphon petrol from a car.

A police officer spotted the defendant’s arms and legs flailing underneath the vehicle after it collapsed on top of him.

Speaking after that case went to court Phillips said: “When I was younger I used to do a lot of burglaries and I never used to get caught.

“I am not into all that now I just want to get my life together and settle down.”

He repeated the message after facing the courts again in 2004 and 2007.

He has been made subject to jail terms, community orders and anti-social behaviour orders but nothing has stopped his crime sprees so far.

Alex Mann, prosecuting, said over the years Phillips had been spoken to by various agencies, had been offered help, had accepted it, but never followed it through.

In January he had been released from custody, offered a flat, but did not move in and did not seek help.

Lee Hammond, defending, said Phillips had not struck for money for drugs recently, but so that he did not depend financially on his partner, a mother of three.

He had literacy problems, she went with him to fill in forms, but sometimes his pride got the better of him and he did not get his benefits.

Residents in Langroyd Road, Colne, where Phillips has previously struck, said he was well known in the area.

One man said: “Everybody around here knows him. Our cars are all alarmed.

“You can't blame him. The problem is that those sentencing him are being told we're not bothered about this little fella as the prisons are full.

“So then they just give him a slap on the wrist and send him away.

"What sort of a country are we living in?”