A MENTAL patient from Green Lane Hospital seized a postman's delivery trolley and threw it into the road, hitting a Land Rover Discovery driven by a former mayoress of Devizes.

Kennet magistrates heard on Tuesday that Peter Osborne, who has been a voluntary in-patient for a year, absconded from the hospital on July 21.

Becky Abbott, prosecuting, said that Rita Parsons, who was Mayoress of Devizes, happened to be driving past and was unable to avoid the trolley, which did nearly £300 damage to the nearside wing of her vehicle.

Osborne, 43, was arrested and told police he had been feeling very frustrated and had pushed the trolley into the road to relieve his frustration.

Two days later, while he was on bail for the first offence, he entered the One Stop shop in the Market Place at 7.30pm and helped himself to two bottles of WKD vodka drink and a bottle of orange juice, brought them to the counter but, after they had been rung through the till, he picked up the bag with the items in it and walked out without paying.

He told police he had forgotten he had not paid for the items.

Finally, two days after that, on July 25, he went into Woolworth's in the Brittox and asked to be shown a Sony Playstation games machine. Then he asked to see another and the shop assistant put the first one on the floor behind the counter.

He asked if he could have both of them but the shop assistant, now suspicious, asked him to pay the money before she handed them over.

Osborne attempted to lean over the counter to grab the items and then coolly walked behind the counter and picked them up.

Staff trapped him behind the counter until police arrived. He told them he had intended to steal the Playstations because he wanted to go to prison.

John Elliott, defending, told the court his client had a "borderline personality behaviour problem" with depressive anxiety.

He said: "There is a pattern here that needs to be addressed."

He said that Osborne had had his benefit reduced to £15 a week because he had been in hospital for such a long time, which increased his depression.

Mr Elliott added: "He has shown remorse for the criminal damage to the car and said he committed the thefts in hopes he'd be caught, which shows there is something wrong somewhere."

He asked for the case to be adjourned for pre-sentence reports.

But presiding magistrate Stephen Brazier said they would expect the hospital would carry out its own inquiry into Osborne's case and said the court doing its own would be a waste of public money.

Osborne was given a 12-month conditional discharge but was ordered to pay £260 compensation at the rate of £10 a fortnight.