A chatline addict who left a trail of unpaid phone bills was jailed for two months by magistrates.

Depressed Anthony Digham used a variety of false names to get phone lines installed by BT and Yorkshire Cable, but never paid any of the bills during a three-year period.

Prosecutor Joanne Kidd told Bradford Magistrates Court yesterday that the cost of stolen telephone equipment and calls totalled more than £3,400. Digham, 29, of Towngate, Wyke, pleaded guilty to theft and fraudulent use of a telecommunication system. He asked for a further 16 offences of a similar nature to be considered.

He was ordered to pay £150 compensation to both BT and Yorkshire Cable.

Jailing Digham, bench chairman David Morgan told him that the offences had been organised and persistent and carried out over a long period of time. "Clearly the only reason you stopped was that you were detected by the telephone companies,'' he added.

Miss Kidd said Digham, who had problems with alcohol and ill-health, began offending by using a false name to obtain a phone line from BT in February 1995.

But after he was supplied with a cordless phone and answering machine the agreement was terminated the following month. "No payment was ever received for the bills,'' she said.

Digham used either his own name or a false one to commit similar offences up until June this year when it was noticed that many of the unpaid bills had common phone numbers.

His solicitor, Paul Nicholson, said: "He was receiving medication for depression and he says he feels the addiction he formed for using chatlines was something to do with that.''

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