A MAN who stole meat from a Malvern supermarket has been given a 12-month conditional discharge.

On March 16 this year, store detectives at Waitrose in Edith Walk saw Rory Jones, aged 42, acting suspiciously, and checked the store’s CCTV.

They saw him putting packets of meat into a bag and walk out of the store without paying.

When he was approached outside the shop by staff, he dumped the meat, worth £68.50, into a nearby bin, but he was caught nonetheless. Because it had been in the bin, the meat could not be re-sold.

Barry Newton, for Jones, said that that he had a record of “acquisitive dishonesty stemming from his addiction to illegal drugs.”

Jones, of Romsley, Halesowen, was conditionally discharged for 12 months, fined £130 for breach of an earlier suspended sentence, and told to pay £135 costs, a victim surcharge of £20 and compensation of £68.50.