A FORMER drugs counsellor who went shopping with a stolen bank card had been on a court order for dishonesty at the time, heard Skipton Magistrates Court.

Raymond Bond, 40, took a wallet which had been left by a member of staff behind the bar of a Cross Hills restaurant, took the £17 in cash and used the debit card, the court heard on Friday.

Using the card’s ‘contactless’ facility, Bond clocked up purchases at shops in the area to the value of £41.99. Bond was recognised from CCTV footage and when interviewed by police about it, said he was sorry, said prosecutor Martin Butterworth, who added Bond had been four months into a 12 month community order for dishonesty at the time of the offence.

Bond, of Main Street, Haworth, Keighley, who admitted theft on September 3, was addicted to opiates after at one time counselling others to get off drugs, the court heard in mitigation.

Mohammed Hussain said Bond had been working at a rehabilitation unit in Leeds when he had been the victim of an assault which had meant a spell in hospital, being prescribed strong pain killers, and lapsing back into addiction.

Magistrates revoked Bond’s old community order and re-sentenced him to a new 12 month order with a six month, non-residential drugs treatment programme. He will have to complete up to 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days, pay compensation of £58.99, costs of £85 and a surcharge of £90.