A MAN stole from a partly-built house to fund his drug habit, a court heard.

Darren Croft admitted stealing £150 of copper piping when he appeared before Kirklees magistrates.

The court was told that the 36-year-old pilfered from The Oval at Healds Road in Dewsbury.

Vanessa Schofield, prosecuting, said that the new housing development featured a mix of completed and partly constructed houses.

She said that on May 21 one of these properties was closed overnight. The following day staff discovered that copper piping had been removed from the house.

This had been removed from the joists separating the ground floor from the first floor.

Blood found by police on some of the piping was used to match Croft to the burglary.

In interview he admitted that he had jumped over the fence and entered the house through the wooden patio doors.

He told officers that he sold the scrap to Morley Waste Traders for £40.

Croft, of Moorcroft Road in Dewsbury, said he used the cash to buy drugs.

The Huddersfield bench was told that the last burglary on his record was in May 2010.

Croft was last in court this May for offences including theft, when he was given a community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement.

Magistrates revoked his current court order and replaced it with a 12 month community order, including a drug rehabilitation order for nine months. They also ordered him to pay £150 compensation and £85 court costs.