A Lithuanian working at a car wash earning just £20 a day was caught stealing a Brazilian football shirt from JJB in Blackburn.
Blackburn magistrates heard that Andrius Bartkeviltos would have had to work for more than three days to pay for the shirt and a pair of track suit bottoms he stole from the town centre store.
Bartkeviltos, 27, of Victoria Street, Nelson, pleaded guilty to theft. He was given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay £65 costs.
Roger Pickles, defending, said his client had been in the UK for two years, living a frugal life.
"He earns £20 a day at the car wash and will work as many days as they want him to," said Mr Pickles.
"He pays £35 a week for a room and the vast majority of what is left of his wages he sends back to Lithuania to support his mother and his brother.
"The money he earns here, pitiful though it is, means a lot to these people and he had perhaps sent more than he could afford."
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