ADDICT Craig Joseph Thomas got his first taste of illegal drugs when his father injected him with amphetamine when he was just 13 years old.

Blackburn magistrates heard that he had been addicted ever since but at last realised that he faced an early death unless he mended his ways.

Thomas, of Cherry Lodge, Islington, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to four charges of theft which defence solicitor Roger Pickles said had all be committed to fund his habit. He was made subject to a drug treatment and testing order for 12 months. During the first 13 weeks of the order he will be tested for drugs twice a week and once a week for the remainder.

Mr Pickles said it was accepted that Thomas had a horrendous criminal record and that since 1995 little had been tried except prison.

"It won't come as a shock that this man has a drug problem," said Mr Pickles. "It started in a way that appals me, when his father injected him with amphetamine at the age of 13.

"Over the years he has tried hard to overcome his addiction and he now realises that drugs have destroyed his life. He has reached the bottom and realises that he can't carry on living the way he has been."

Mr Pickles said Thomas had progressed from taking amphetamine to heroin and now took a mixture of benzodiazapene and heroin.

"He tells me that under the influence of this concoction he believes himself invisible which explains the blatant offences of shoplifting," said Mr Pickles. "He is quite literally in another world and when he is clear and looks back he asks what kind of life is he living."

Mr Pickles said a drug treatment and testing order could be a lifetime solution.

"It is his last chance," said Mr Pickles. "He has shortened his life, he is unlikely to see three score and ten, and medical opinion is that people with his problems do not live much past their 50s without certain transplants," said Mr Pickles. "I urge you to give him this last chance and let him try and put his life back together."