A PROLIFIC Workington thief who flouted a court order that bans him from the town's major shops must undergo drug rehabilitation.

Colin Orr, 54, went into the town’s Marks & Spencer store earlier this week, when he was seen piling goods worth £240 into a trolley, Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard. He admitted that this was a breach of his criminal behaviour order.

The court heard that staff at the Pow Street store asked him whether he intended to pay for the goods he had collected.

His response was to show them a bank card.

“They then told him he was banned and told him to leave,” said prosecutor George Shelley. He added that Orr, of Blackburn Street, Workington, had a criminal record which comprised of 240 previous offences.

Some 138 of those were thefts.

John Cooper, defending, described the defendant as a “vulnerable individual,” who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yet two organisations – the Probation Service and Recovery Steps – were willing to work with him.

For breaching the criminal behaviour order, magistrates imposed a three-month non-residential drug rehabilitation order, which will involve Orr working with Recovery Steps as well as GPS tag monitoring.

This will allow the defendant’s movements to be monitored throughout the three months when the order is in force. He must also submit to regular drug testing.

Magistrates also added three months suspension period to a 15-week suspended sentence that was in force when Orr breached the criminal behaviour order. Magistrates said it would have been unjust to activate the suspended jail term.

This was because there was a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation,” as evidenced by the support of Probation and Recovery Steps.

The defendant’s suspended jail term will now expire in October and not July, as was previously the case.