A FORMER apprentice with Blackburn Rovers was jailed for three months for shoplifting by Blackburn magistrates.

The court heard that Conrad Culshaw was finished by the club when he committed his first drugs offence and had subsequently taken a job at Walker Steel.

But defence solicitor Ian Huggan said that job had gone when heroin took hold.

Culshaw, 32, of Dixon Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to three offences of shoplifting and failing to comply with a probation order. He was sent to prison for 90 days.

Mr Huggan said Culshaw had been a promising young footballer but had ruined his career before it got started. He said Culshaw had moved to Blackpool to try to get away from drugs and the people associated with them. He had been through the "pure hell" of rehabilitation and was determined to beat his drug habit.

"He has a son who he wants to look up to him and he realises he has to move away from his previous behaviour," he added.