A Darwen man stopped in the early hours of the morning carrying a set of ladders told police he had found them, a court was told.

Blackburn magistrates heard the officers discovered a van parked down the road with ladders missing from a roof rack.

John Carlin Quinn, 31, of Birch Hall Avenue, pleaded guilty to theft of ladders, theft of lager from the Co-op Late Shop and admitted a breach of the peace.

He was made subject to a community supervision order for 12 months and bound over in the sum of £100 to keep the peace for 12 months.

Liz Parker, defending, said it was obvious Quinn had drug problems but he was doing his best to combat them.