A 29-YEAR-old man stole two phones from a display, not realising they were dummies.

Blackburn magistrates heard Dolars Kleins broke both the display items as he tried to open them and ended up throwing them in a bin.

Kleins, of Saunders Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to theft of two display mobiles worth £60 from O2. He was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £165 costs.

The court heard Kleins told police he intended to give the phones, had they been real, as Christmas presents for his niece and nephew.

Coleen Dickinson-Jones, defending, described the theft as an ‘act of stupidity’.

“They were of some nominal value to the shop but they had not worth to him or anyone else,” said Mrs Dickinson-Jones.