NOTORIOUS 'Safari Boy' Mark Hook, of Gloucester, is back behind bars after admitting a house burglary - the latest in a long series of offences which began when he was a young boy.

In 1993 Hook, 38, was sent on an 88 day African Safari by social services in a failed bid to stop his offending.

The trip caused a national furore and was condemned in Parliament by then Prime Minister John Major.

Soon after his return from the sightseeing trip of Egypt and Kenya Hook returned to crime - and has continued to be a regular in Gloucestershire courts ever since.

On Friday, November 14, via video link from Hewell Prison where he is in custody on remand, Hook, of Barton St, Gloucester, admitted burgling Lake Lodge Bungalow, in North Nibley, near Dursley, on April 9 this year and stealing property including cheque books, a passport and a pillow case.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC, at Gloucester Crown Court, remanded him for pre-sentence reports and adjourned the case till Thursday, December 4.

Hook was being cared for at the Bryn Melyn Children's Centre in North Wales when it was decided in late 1993 to take him on the three-month trip to Africa in the hope it would break his pattern of offending and show him a better way of living.

On his return the expedition, said to cost £7,000, was condemned by the Prime Minister and foreign trips for young offenders were then banned.

Only three days after Hook's return from the safari around Christmas, 1993, he started offending again and he has been a regular in Gloucester's courts ever since.

Hook's last criminal conviction was in July 2012 Hook when he was jailed for 18 months for mugging a woman shopper and handling property stolen from another woman robbery victim.

Hook is a descendant of Gloucestershire-born Private Henry Hook who won a Victoria Cross in 1879 for his heroic role in the Battle of Rorke's Drift in South Africa. The battle inspired the film Zulu in which Private Hook, who is buried in Churcham, near Gloucester, was portrayed by James Booth.