A DRUG user stole a £4,500 motorcycle and sold it within hours to fund his crack cocaine habit, Burnley magistrates heard.

Lee Atkinson, 26, told police he got £300 for the machine taken from outside the owner's home in the early hours.

Delivery driver Atkinson, of Cog Lane, Burnley, admitted theft and was bailed until October 1 for a pre sentence report. He was ordered to observe a 9pm-7am curfew.

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, said the owner left the bike outside her house.

At 4am she was awoken and saw a van outside and somebody tampering with the bike.

She realised it had been put in the van and went out to challenge the thieves.

Atkinson and his accomplice drove off but the owner managed to get the registration number.

Police arrested Atkinson, who said he had sold the bike for £300 and spent it on his crack cocaine habit. He refused to tell police where the cycle had been sold.

Mark Williams, defending, said Atkinson had had a heroin habit, but was now on a methadone programme.

He had been seeking to come to terms with his addiction, not wholly successfully.

Atkinson got himself involved in the offence and bought illicit drugs.

The defendant, who worked for his father as a delivery driver, had stayed out of trouble for more than 12 months.

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