A BURGLAR who tried to harm himself in police custody has been ordered to do unpaid work.

Mark Anthony Moir was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work for breaking into the cellar of Café Rouge and stealing food and kitchen items.

But when he failed to do the work, police arrested him on a court warrant and locked him up.

His solicitor Vicky Latham said: “He feared he would inevitably be sent to prison.”

Magistrates read a report that gave details of how Moir tried to harm himself at Fulford Road Police Station. The police then removed everything in his cell but his mattress and he tried to take the mattress apart.

Moir, 32, of Richmond Street, central York, pleaded guilty to criminal damage to the mattress and failure to comply with a community order passed on December 16, 2011, for the burglary.

Magistrates revoked the original order and gave him another one including 12 months’ supervision and a rehabilitation course for binge drinkers. He was also ordered to pay £93 compensation to North Yorkshire Police to replace the mattress, £85 prosecution costs and a £60 government imposed victim surcharge.

They heard it was Moir’s second breach of the order. When he was ordered to appear before magistrates in July, he failed to appear and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Police arrested him on January 10, and took him to Fulford Road Police Station where he vandalised the mattress.

Ms Latham said when he appeared in court for the first breach he was allowed to keep his liberty. But he saw two people jailed for breaching their orders and the court told him he had had his last chance.

So when he breached the order for the second time and was ordered back to court in July he was so afraid of going to prison he didn’t attend.