A DRUG addict found rifling through clothing in changing rooms at York Railway Institute later stole so he and his partner could go on holiday in an effort to kick their habit, a court heard.

Steven John Stone, 24, admitted four counts of theft and was yesterday ordered by Harrogate magistrates to do 80 hours of unpaid community work and comply with a 12-month community rehabilitation order.

Stone, of Cygnet Street, York, was fined £50 after pleading guilty to failing to answer bail and was banned from driving for a year after admitting four insurance and four driving licence offences, said to have largely involved the use of his ''getaway'' vehicle after his shoplifting.

Brian Griffiths, prosecuting, said Stone had been found by a staff member in the under-16s changing rooms at York Railway Institute in March. He had run off, but been caught and found in possession of a stolen mobile phone.

Two weeks later he was captured on CCTV taking a £3.59 bottle of bodywash - for which compensation was ordered - from a York chemist's shop and in April he and a partner stole two £20 bikinis from British Home Stores, in York.

Mr Griffiths said Stone and his partner were in Harrogate in May, stealing two pairs of tracksuit bottoms worth £39.98 from a shop in the Victoria Centre.

Sally Howard, defending, said Stone and his girlfriend were both heroin addicts. They had stolen the clothing before going on holiday in the hope of detoxifying and getting off the downward spiral both were on.

They would have gone the day after the Harrogate theft, but Stone had been kept in custody for a week. When they got abroad, both got clean and while Stone's girlfriend remained there, he came back intent on handing himself in. But he had been arrested within hours of arriving home and had spent another three weeks in custody.

Mrs Howard said Stone had given up his former heroin haunts and associates, had found himself part-time work, which could lead to a permanent job, and had re-established contact with his mother and his siblings.

Updated: 12:12 Thursday, July 31, 2003