A HEROIN addict told a court he repeatedly stole food from a Worcester store to pay a drug gang who held him hostage for two days.

Timothy Tarbuck stole £180 worth of food on three separate occasions from a Costcutter in Worcester. He also stole £10 from a wallet found on the floor of a newsagents.

Worcester Magistrates Court were told the offences were committed so Tarbuck could sell the stolen goods and pay back a debt he owed to his heroin dealer.

Brian O'Connell, defending, said: "He was apprehended by suppliers and beaten up and held captive for two days.

"It is a method of enforcement which has become quite common in Worcester. For that reason he said he started stealing to pay them off."

Tarbuck, 35, committed the first offence on Saturday, June 9, when he found a wallet on the floor of a newsagent.

CCTV images showed him picking up the wallet, which was later handed back but without the £10 note.

On Sunday, November 18, he stole £70 worth of items from Costcutter.

A week later he returned to the store and stole another £70 worth of goods, and on Friday, December 7, he was again in Costcutter where he was caught stealing three whole chickens, bacon and blocks of cheese.

Tarbuck, of Blackpole Road, Brickfields, Worcester, admitted all four thefts and being in breach of a six-week suspended sentence given to him on Thursday, November 29 - also for shoplifting.

Mr O'Connell told the court Tarbuck has a long-term heroin addiction, but since his last appearance in court had tried to clean up his act.

"In his terms he had been out of trouble for some time," he said.

"He had made a genuine effort to come off heroin."

Magistrates imposed the six-week suspended sentence and sentenced Tarbuck to a further six weeks in custody for the thefts, with another two weeks for a bail act offence committed on December 21 when he failed to appear in court.

He will serve 14 weeks in prison.