A HEROIN-addicted house breaker may never walk properly again because of serious damage done to his spine by drugs, a court was told.

Michael Quigley, 25, who may end up in a wheelchair, had helped himself to a joiner's work tools but was rumbled by a binman who saw him looking in houses and then come out of a property carrying his haul.

Quigley, who has recently been in custody, either in the prison hospital wing or chained to a bed in the Royal Preston hospital, was spared more jail, after admitting burglary and being committed for sentence by magistrates.

Recorder Michael Laprell told the defendant, who has almost 90 previous convictions, he had a very serious criminal record and if he broke into a house again he would be jailed for a minimum of three years.

The judge said the best thing for the public would be to rehabilitate Quigley and he was prepared to give him that chance.

Recorder Laprell said Quigley's drug taking had caused a very serious deterioration in his spine and it was unlikely he would ever be able to walk properly or stand up straight again. The judge told him: "Your drug taking will put you in a wheelchair if you are not careful - that's before it leads to your premature death."

The defendant, of Branch Road, Burnley, was given a two year community order with a 12 month drug rehabilitation requirement.

Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, said Quigley burgled the Mitella Street house in Burnley, home of a joiner, and ransacked every room. He took tools worth more than £500 and left the victim in shock, inconvenienced and shelling out more money.

A binman had seen the defendant looking in house windows on the street and spotted him coming out of a house carrying things.

The refuse collector later picked out Quigley on an identity parade.

Philip Holden, defending, said Quigley had spent five months in custody, mostly confined to bed. He had not been able to eat with the other prisoners and it was more difficult than custody would normally have been.