A BACUP man, aged 34, who went on to a hospital building site dressed as a workman and stole drills worth £400, was sent to prison for a total of three months by magistrates.

However, David John Chadwick, of Queen Street, will have those three months incorporated into a 15-month jail sentence he is currently serving for perverting the course of justice and breaching a probation order.

Chadwick was brought from prison to Rochdale magistrates court to plead guilty to the theft of the drills and having articles in connection with a theft or burglary. Mr Martin McRobb, prosecuting, said Chadwick arrived at a building site at Rochdale Infirmary dressed in workman's clothes with a hard hat, bag and work boots and an identity tag, passing himself off as a site worker.

While he was there he stole the drills. The ruse was discovered and he was arrested shortly afterwards and admitted the theft.

Steve Connor, defending, said Chadwick was a heroin addict who had been sent to prison by the Crown Court and in some degree welcomed being placed in a position where he could rid himself of the addiction he had suffered for a number of years.

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