BUTLER TWP — A convicted identity thief is back in prison on charges he used his grandmother’s credit card to buy store gift cards.

The suspect, Christopher D. Gaiser, 31, of Marion Township, admitted he later traded the gift cards for drugs, authorities said.

Butler Township police last week charged Gaiser with access device fraud, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of theft and receiving stolen property.

Just last month, police arrested him in an unrelated case for shoplifting a vacuum cleaner and coffee maker from a township store.

Gaiser has been in the Butler County Prison since Feb. 17 when state parole officers caught him for violating his parole in connection with a previous access device fraud case that earned him a 1-to-3-year state prison sentence in 2011.

In his most recent criminal case, Gaiser is accused of stealing his grandmother’s credit card Feb. 7 and using it seven times that day at four stores in both the township and in Butler.

He racked up nearly $560 in purchases, including store gift cards, with the credit card, according to charging documents.

Police said he eventually acknowledged committing the crime spree, during a Feb. 18 interview with investigators.

He admitted he “used the gift cards to buy heroin,” a police affidavit said. “The rest of the day and a half (was) a blur.”

At the time he allegedly did those crimes. Gaiser was already charged with misdemeanor retail theft in a separate case filed by township police.

In that case, police accused him of swiping the vacuum and coffee maker, worth a combined $264, from the Walmart at the Butler Commons shopping plaza Jan. 26

Gaiser managed to run away with the merchandise, court documents said. Police charged him four days later.

He remains in the county prison on $8,000 bail while awaiting preliminary hearings in both cases.