A MAN has avoided jail after snatching DVDs from the same shop three times in the space of a month.

Nathan Norman Cole, 33, of James Street, Bishop Auckland, pleaded guilty to three counts of theft when he appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The court heard the defendant visited WH Smiths in Durham City on March 29, April4 and 22 last year - leaving the shop each time with DVDs worth between £30 and £147.

On the second occasion the store manager recognised Cole and after challenging a woman he was with outside, was hit on the head - knocking his glasses to the floor.

Prosecutor Alan Davies said he then “punched” a man who intervened.

Ben Pegman, mitigating, said Cole had been in the grip of a heroin addiction which is now being treated.

Judge Martin Walker said: “You are perhaps a lucky man that you weren’t charged with assaults. Had there only been thefts I would not have dealt with it in any other way than a discharge. This incident is serious enough for a community penalty.”

Cole, who also admitted criminal damage, was serving a suspended sentence, ordered on January 26, for assaulting a PC.

He was handed a one-year community order with a requirement to carry out 15 rehabilitation activity days and ordered to pay compensation of £150 to manager.