A MAN who fed his legal high addiction by stealing from a housing charity, has been spared jail by magistrates.

Dominic Seagrave stole a washing machine, gas cooker, fridge, kettle, toaster, microwave oven and a kitchen table and chair set, worth £730, from the charity to fund his addiction to a legal high called Spice.

The magistrates were also told Seagrave went into another man's room on other occasions at the same address and stolen gym equipment, a hoover, a laptop - which had eight years of work on it - food parcels and an Easter egg.

Nikita Copley, mitigating, said Seagrave was full of deep guilt and deeply ashamed of what he had done, selling some of the goods on to a secondhand shop for the minimum value to pay for his addiction.

"He was in a dark place at that time taking a legal high called Spice which had a real impact on his life. He lost everything. He also fell outwith his mother who could not be around him," she said.

"Now he is trying to come off the drug, he's not taken it for two weeks. He's on a drugs intervention programme to seek help. He really does want to turn his life round."

At an earlier hearing, Seagrave admitted six counts of burglary while staying at Hope Housing accommodation in Wharncliffe Drive, Bradford, in April this year.

Yesterday, magistrates heard Seagrave had since been reunited with his mother, got himself a GP and had been making efforts to find work by taking his CV to job agencies.

"He wants to be out of that dark place," said Ms Copley who had asked magistrates to consider imposing a community order rather than a jail sentence.

"A community order would help him. He really does need a helping hand, he is a shadow of himself due to the drug taking."

Sentencing, chairman of the bench Richard Jackson told Seagrave: "There will be people who will help you but ultimately you have to help yourself."

He was given an eight month sentence suspended for 18 months linked to a community order to serve 30 days on a rehabilitation activity and was told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

The 23-year-old, of no fixed abode, was also ordered to pay £460, which included court costs and £100 compensation each to Hope Housing and the man whose room he stole from.