Arrest warrant issued for heroin addict granddaughter of Coronation Street star

A judge ordered the apprehension of Emma Beach, 26, after she failed to appear in court to answer a summons.

Serial offender Beach missed a series of appointments with probationers and drug treatment organisations, ordered as part of a sentence handed down for shoplifting.

Beach and her mother Karen Briggs - the soap star's daughter - are both drug addicts and have notched up nearly 50 convictions between them.

Judge Peter Moss ordered Beach's arrest after she failed to appear at Guildford Crown Court in Surrey on Monday.

In January the pair were arrested for stealing almost £400 worth of candles from a card shop and a neighbour's parcel.

Briggs, 48, whose father was playboy Mike Baldwin in the TV soap for 30 years, was jailed for six months.

Beach was given a treatment order on the grounds that her mother was a bad influence and all of her drug-taking, since she was 14, had involved her mother.

In June this year, Judge Moss added three sessions onto her sentence as a punishment for failing to attend previous meetings.

Days earlier she had been arrested for stealing £150 worth of meat from a BP Connect shop, for which magistrates extended her drug treatment order.

Rachael Lane, prosecuting, told the court of the latest matter: "This is a fresh allegation of a breach against Miss Beach, arising from her failure to attend a number of appointments."

Johnny Briggs is a well-known face in British television [PA]

She's extremely ashamed at what she has done to her family and what she has done to her daughter

Di Middleton, lawyer, referring to Johnny's daughter

The judge was told Beach had been sent a court summons to her home in Cobham, Surrey, but no response had been received.

A previous hearing in February was told Briggs had "unresolved issues" regarding her parents and had received an "unusual upbringing".

Her lawyer Di Middleton told the previous hearing Briggs took full responsibility for her daughter and wanted to rebuild her relationship with her 78-year-old father.

Ms Middleton said: "Her father is an extremely well-known figure in television.

"She's extremely ashamed at what she has done to her family and what she has done to her daughter.

"Nothing could be harder than for her to see her daughter reduced to the same circumstances, with her as this poor role model, rather than her grandfather as this very good role model."

She said Briggs wanted to rebuild her family relationships, including with her father who has had a prostate operation and undergone tests for skin cancer.

But the actor, 78, later insisted he had given up on his daughter after years of broken promises.

After Briggs was jailed he said: "I am not going to visit her.

"She promised me so many times she would behave. I have disowned her."

Briggs had 32 convictions for 52 offences, while Beach had 16 convictions for 23 offences.