A MAN went on a shoplifting spree after his methadone prescription was cancelled and he needed to pay for illegal street drugs.

Blackburn magistrates heard Richard Conrad Beresford committed 12 offences in three days in order to fund his habit.

Beresford, 37, of Sandfield Road, Bacup, pleaded guilty to 13 charges of shoplifting. He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months with a six months drug rehabilitation requirement and ordered to pay a total of £367 compensation.

Ben Leach, defending, said his client accepted he used to have a drug addiction.

"In 2014 he recognised he needed to mend his ways," said Mr Leach. "On his release from a prison sentence he managed to get himself off illicit drugs.

There was a wobble in 2018 when he again started taking heroin and crack cocaine and started stealing to fund it."

Mr Leach said Beresford got a 14 week sentence but when he came out was motivated and managed to get back on a methadone prescription.

"Unfortunately he missed an appointment with his doctor and the prescription was stopped," said Mr Leach. "It is difficult to cope without methadone when you are on the level he was on and, as he told the police, he started to steal to pay for street drugs."