A FORMER drugs counsellor from Haworth who went shopping with a stolen bank card was subject to a court order for dishonesty at the time, magistrates heard.

Raymond Bond, 40, of Main Street, took a wallet which had been left by a member of staff behind the bar of a Cross Hills restaurant, took £17 in cash and used the debit card, Skipton Court was told.

Using the card’s ‘contactless’ facility, Bond clocked up purchases at shops in the area to the value of £41.99.

Bond was recognised from CCTV footage and when interviewed by police, said he was sorry, said prosecutor Martin Butterworth, who added Bond had been four months into a 12-month community order for dishonesty at the time of the offence.

Bond, who admitted theft on September 3, was addicted to opiates after at one time counselling others to get off drugs, the court heard in mitigation. Mohammed Hussain said Bond had been working at a rehabilitation unit in Leeds when he had been the victim of an assault which had meant a spell in hospital, being prescribed strong pain killers, and lapsing back into addiction.

Magistrates revoked Bond’s old community order and re-sentenced him to a 12-month order with non-residential drugs treatment programme. He will have to complete up to 20 rehabilitation activity days and pay £58.99 compensation, £85 costs and a £90 surcharge.