A YOUNG crime victim is to get his money back from the drug addict who snatched it from his hands.

The 11-year-old boy was about to buy his mother a birthday present in York when Julie Greenwood, 22, grabbed £40 from his wallet, York magistrates heard yesterday.

But although the thief managed to elude a witness who chased her, she was arrested later, the court was told.

Greenwood, of Tennant Road, Acomb, admitted stealing £40 from the boy on January 5, breaching a community rehabilitation order, three failures to attend court, stealing two dolls worth just under £70 from Fenwicks, on October 24, and stealing seven cans of deodorant from Superdrug on February 25.

Magistrates ordered her to pay £40 compensation to the boy and put her on a drug testing and treatment order for 12 months.

At an earlier hearing, Angela Smith, prosecuting, said the boy had saved his Christmas money to buy the birthday present, and he was checking how much he had in his wallet outside of a city centre branch of the Halifax bank, when the incident happened.

Urging magistrates to put her on the drug order, Craig Sutcliffe, mitigating, said it could stop her offending.