Dismissing an appeal against his sentence as completely without foundation, senior judges today decided to make an example of Allan Dryden and increase his jail term.

The 30-year-old amphetamine user had been jailed for 30 months in June, after pleading guilty to three counts of handling stolen goods and four charges of fraud.

Dryden, of Lakeland Avenue, Whitehaven, used bank cards stolen in burglaries to withdraw cash from the accounts of unwitting victims.

He got away with hundreds of pounds before they noticed and asked their banks to block the cards.

With a final fling of the dice, Dryden asked top judges in the Criminal Appeal Court to reduce his 30-month sentence, claiming he had been treated too harshly.

But instead of agreeing with him, the court condemned his appeal as hopeless - and gave him two extra months behind bars for wasting their time.

The court heard that before his recent spate of offending, Dryden had already racked up 36 previous convictions for theft, burglary or related crimes.

Lady Justice Rafferty said: "All of this offending was committed under the influence of drugs or to support his dependency."

Dryden had already been refused permission to appeal by another judge, and advised not to carry on with his challenge, she added.

However he had chosen to press on and squander court time with his "entirely unmeritorious application", she added.

"A total of four judges and a lawyer have now spent time dealing with this case," said the judge, who was sitting with Mr Justice Spencer and Judge Mark Brown

"It is wholly without merit and should never have been advanced."