A combination of mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse was the background to a crime spree in Bristol.
Stephen Kelbrick had a troubled life contributed to by personal tragedies, Bristol Crown Court heard.
It resulted in him pilfering from a home and business premises in Bristol between May and July last year.
Kelbrick, 44, of Adelaide Road in Reading, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and driving while disqualified and without insurance.
He also admitted burgling the Old Duke pub in King Street as well as Tesco in Union Street, from where he took a staff member's car without consent and drove it while disqualified and without insurance.
Judge Mark Horton handed him a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.
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He told Kelbrick: "A combination of your mental health issues and abuse of alcohol and drugs meant that you were completely incapable of living a life without being in trouble associated with those problems.
"Of significance is there was a gap in offending between 2007 to 2011.
"Things were improving but then you suffered a series of tragedies.
"The court has to decide if the immediacy of the sentence is of real benefit to society."
Kelbrick was ordered to undergo 30 days of rehabilitation and was disqualified from driving for three years, until he has passed an extended driving test.
Lucy Taylor, prosecuting, said Kelbrick took a Mercedes car from a home in Redcliffe in May last year and was seen to drive it dangerously.
The following month he took a laptop computer from The Old Duke pub but was spotted and handed it back.
Some three weeks later he entered a staff room at the Tesco store, helped himself to keys and drove off in a car later abandoned in Champion Street, with damage to its glove box.
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Katie Jenkins, defending, said after her client's partner died of cancer his flat burned down and he ended up living in a tent.
Miss Jenkins said: "He wasn't able to see a GP because he lost his identity documents.
"He was struggling to see anybody about anything.
"He talks about wanting to do therapy.
"Things are improving.
"He has made progress and he says to me how he very much fears prison and he wishes to lead a law-abiding life."
