DESPITE travelling to Thailand and becoming drug free a man fell off the wagon and went thieving to fund his heroin addiction following an argument with his partner.

Robert Peapell of The Bungalows, Pinehurst, pleaded guilty to stealing food valued at £73 from the Co-Operative in Lyneham on January 9 of this year when he came before magistrates sitting in Swindon on Wednesday.

Pauline Lambert, on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court that the offence had come to light after staff at the store reviewed CCTV and saw him stealing six joints of beef. In police interview he disputed this and said it was only four joints, which he had sold on for £20 to buy drugs.

He admitted that this latest offence put him in breach of a 12 month conditional discharge for earlier charges.

Defending the 29-year-old Harriet Heard told the magistrates that Peapell had successfully beaten his drug addiction in the past, after a visit to Thailand, but he had relapsed after an argument with his partner. “He is living with his mother and managing to hold down a labouring job and doing quite well in the circumstances,” she said.

After hearing from the Probation Service that he was funding a £50 a day heroin and crack habit chairman of the bench Val Street told him that because he had breached his conditional discharge he would not only be sentenced for the offence that had brought him to court but also the previous offences.

He was ordered to carry out a 12 month community order which will look to tackle his drug abuse. She said: “If you are spending as much money on these drugs as we have heard you are it must be a great incentive to get off them. This is your opportunity to get back off them again.”

She also ordered he pay £73 compensation to the Co-operative for the stolen beef.