A THIEF who stole an £11 bottle of vodka got rid of video tape evidence against him.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Simon Morris, 22, just 10 days out of prison, took the tape from the front seat of a police car and gave it to an accomplice, who ran off with it.

Sending Morris, who has 11 previous convictions for theft, and who claimed he had never been given much of a chance by the courts, to prison for three months, Judge Raymond Bennett told him he must first serve the unexpired portion of his previous sentence.

Morris, of Garden Street, Oswaldtwistle, admitted theft and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Mark Lamberty, prosecuting, said a bottle of vodka was taken from the Co-op food market on Union Road, Oswaldtwistle and video taken in the shop revealed it to be Morris.

A policewoman arrived and the defendant, released from prison 10 days before, struggled as he was put in the police car. He then reached into the front passenger seat, took the tape and passed it to an accomplice saying: "Break it up, it's their evidence."

The accomplice ran off with it and Morris was subdued with CS gas as more police arrived. In an interview the following day, he denied theft.

Roger Baldwin, defending, said Morris drank too much. He did not suggest his friends led him astray, but he drank far too much with them. Morris had sought help with his problem.

He had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and the time had perhaps arrived to test the resolve he had expressed in a letter to the court.

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