A thief returned an iPhone he had stolen from a pub landlady – after realising that he wouldn’t be able to use it.

Peter Fisher stole it after Linda Lockwood left it on the bar as she chatted to workmen at the Plumbers Arms in Huddersfield town centre.

He then took it to a phone shop in a bid to unlock its password, but when staff wouldn’t help him he returned it to the Macaulay Street premises.

Fisher, 63, pleaded guilty to theft from a person when he appeared at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court today.

The offence occurred on August 17 as the Huddersfield town centre pub was undergoing an extensive refurbishment.

Ms Lockwood returned to the bar to find her £654 rose gold iPhone missing.

She then used a tracker to trace it to Market Street where it was then turned off.

Robert Campbell, prosecuting, said: “Mr Fisher went to see if it could be unlocked because it was password protected.

“Staff were either unable or unwilling to do so and ultimately he returned the phone to the landlady.”

Paul Blanchard, mitigating, told the court that his client was drunk when he took the iPhone and returned it as soon as he realised that it was useless to him.

He added that Fisher, of Saville Court in Ravensthorpe , had been out of trouble since 2012 and this was an opportunistic blip rather than him reverting to type.

District Judge Michael Fanning fined him £120 and ordered him to pay £85 costs and £30 victim surcharge.