An alcoholic has been given a chance to stop offending after he stole whisky out of desperation.
Lee Mellor, of Eastlands in Almondbury, swiped the bottle of booze from Lidl.
He told police that he was struggling to cope as he was withdrawing from alcohol.
Kirklees magistrates agreed to defer the 42-year-old’s sentencing for three months to see how he responds to treatment for his addiction.
Alex Bozman, prosecuting, said that the offence happened on April 25.
Mellor selected a £11.99 bottle of whisky from the Wakefield Road store and hid it in his waistband.
The security tag on the bottle set the store’s alarms off and Mellor was chased by staff and detained.
The bottle of alcohol was recovered and he was arrested.
Mr Bozman said: “He said he was getting withdrawal and had no money so he had taken the bottle of whisky.”
Mellor also asked magistrates to take into account another theft committed by Mellor on the same date.
This involved the theft of alcohol from Tesco in Huddersfield town centre.
Mellor stole from the supermarkets just two days after magistrates sentenced him to six months of alcohol treatment following a conviction for theft.
Mike Sisson-Pell, mitigating, said: “All of the problems that this defendant’s had in recent years has been the result of alcohol misuse.
“To say he’s a chronic alcoholic is putting it mildly.
“This time he’d run out of money and was withdrawing from alcohol so severely he thought he was going to have to go to hospital.
“It was in these desperate circumstances he took the alcohol – detection was certain but he didn’t think because he was so desperate.”
Mr Sisson-Pell asked magistrates to give time for Mellor’s alcohol treatment order to take effect.
He said: “He’s gone through several days of severe pain and not had a drink for three days.
“That’s unheard of and it’s under these exceptional circumstances I’m going to ask you to defer sentence.”
Magistrates agreed to adjourn Mellor’s sentencing until August 6.
In this time he must comply with his alcohol treatment and not commit further offences.
If he breaks these conditions he faces a possible jail term.
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