A 35 year old man who stole to feed his addiction to spice hit a wrong note when he took a rucksack from inside Blackburn Cathedral.

The town's magistrates heard the bag contained a pair of organ shoes and organ music belonging to organ scholar Stephen Crookes.

The bag was found dumped but a charity box and a tips jar which Chris Derbyshire stole from other venues were never recovered.

Derbyshire, of Dunoon Drive, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to stealing a rucksack containing organ shoes and organ music worth £220, stealing a charity box from Blackburn Ice Arena and stealing the tips jar from Hugo Burrito. He was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison and ordered to pay £100 compensation to Mr Crookes, £50 to Blackburn Ice Arena to replace the charity money and £40 to Hugo Burrito.

District Judge James Clarke said Derbyshire had stolen cash from people who worked on a basis of trust and had entered a place of worship to commit the other offence.

"The lowest of the offences you have committed is the theft of the charity box which contained money intended to help people with mental health difficulties," said District Judge Clark. "The combination of the offences, couples with your previous record, means only a custodial sentence is appropriate."

Michael Church-Taylor, prosecuting, said all the offences were caught on CCTV and Derbyshire was identified by a police officer. He said Derbyshire received two custodial sentences last year, the latest in December for theft.

Scott Parker, defending, said his client was still trying to come to terms with post traumatic stress disorder following a violent attack on him during his last prison sentence.

"One of the ways he is trying to deal with that is by using Spice which he tells me is readily and cheaply available," said Mr Parker. "The offences were committed so he could buy more Spice."