A HEROIN addict who stole his mum’s mobile phone under the pretence of leaning into kiss her because she wouldn’t give him money to buy drugs has been jailed.

Preston Crown Court heard how 47-year-old Ian Whitehead had breached a restraining order to commit that offence victim Sheila Sagar said happened just two days after he was released from prison.

Prosecuting, Stephen Parker said that as well as the theft against Ms Sagar, Whitehead had engaged in a spree of shoplifting.

The first offence happened on January 4 when Whitehead stole £40 of Persil tablets from Wilko in Burnley. He returned to the same store four days later to steal £90 of Persil liquid and then on January 17 he stole £65 of face cream from Boots in Burnley.

Whitehead then stole two jackets over the space of two days from Marks and Spencer in the town.

Mr Parker said: “He went into the store on February 7 and stole a jacket. He was seen on CCTV after the event and was therefore to the attention of the security guard. He returned the following day and stole another jacket and was detained on that occasion. The total value of both the jackets was £158.”

Mr Parker said the most serious of Whitehead’s offences was the breach of restraining order for theft offences he committed at his mum’s house on Athens View, Burnley, on February 23.

The court heard Whitehead went into the home of his mother, who was ill in bed, and asked her for money and then asked her partner for money. When they refused to give him money it was then that he stole her black Samsung phone which was valued at £120 from a bedside table.

Mr Parker said: “He took the phone under the pretence of leaning over to give his mother a kiss while was ill in bed. His mere presence at the property on that street put him in breach of a restraining order.”

Mr Parker said: “His mother refers to in her police statement the fact that he had only been released from prison on Friday, February 21, and he committed the offences on Sunday, February 23. Once again going round, and to use the colloquialism, scrounging for money off his mother and her partner to fund his drug addiction.”

Whitehead, of Holmes Street, Burnley, who has 27 convictions for 132 offences, pleaded guilty to breach of a restraining order, theft and five counts of shoplifting.

Defending, Lucy Wright said her client had stayed offence-free for 17 years but had fallen back into crime in 2019 to fund his heroin addiction.

She said: “All of these offences represent what is the product of Mr Whitehead’s hopeless addiction to Class A drugs. It is an addiction that is probably best encapsulated by the remarks of the author of the pre-sentence report that Mr Whitehead is a vulnerable individual. He suffers from diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia and at the time of the offences had fallen away from compliance with his medicated regime. He had allowed himself to become used by others, perhaps more sophisticated than himself.”

Judge Mark Brown jailed Whitehead for 12 months.