A MAN who had spent a large part of his life as a "nomad" stole from a store to raise funds to find the father in Accrington who was said to have abandoned him as a youth, a court was told.

Christian Lee Barnes, 27, of no fixed address, was fined £100 by Rochdale magistrates admitting the theft of five DVDs worth £90 belonging to WH Smith store in the town centre.

The court heard that Barnes had learned that his father, who was alleged to have abandoned him when he was young, was living in Accrington and he had gone shoplifting to raise the money to visit him. Mr Martin McRobb, prosecuting, said Barnes had been followed out of Smith's by a store detective after he had been seen to take the DVDs without paying. Barnes told police: "I apologise to everyone involved."

On his behalf Miss Krystyna Doroszkiewicz said it was an unusual case in which Barnes had been in care since he was 15 after he had been abandoned and left on his own. He had lived from one address to another and from one hostel to another although there were grandparents who had helped him. He had lived a nomadic life.