A PROLIFIC offender has been ordered to carry out unpaid work for the part he played in stealing plants and ornaments from a Darlington DIY store.

Recovering drug user Mark Duncan was one of three men arrested over a break-in at the Morton Park B&Q store on Sunday, April 7.

The 43-year-old had indicated a guilty plea to one count of theft at an earlier hearing and appeared at Darlington Magistrates’ Court for sentencing on Thursday (May 2).

Prosecutor Joanne Hesse said three men had been spotted parking a Vauxhall Corsa in a private hospital close to the store, shortly after it had closed for the day.

She said: “The defendant was seen to wait outside the garden centre, while another man climbed into the compound and threw garden property over the fence.

“Although he remained outside the compound, he helped remove the stolen property and stored it in the car.”

Police stopped the car as Duncan and is associates were attempting to make good their escape.

Duncan had 38 previous convictions for 138 offences, including 69 of dishonesty, and had been jailed for theft from a shop in 2010.

Belinda Dobson, mitigating, said the defendant had recently been released from prison and was suffering withdrawal symptoms as he did not have a methadone prescription.

She said: “He found himself without money and this is why he found himself committing earlier offences.

“He has had the good sense to enter an early guilty plea, unlike his co-accused.”

Duncan, of Bridge Street West, Middlesbrough, was made the subject of a 12-month community order, with 84 hours unpaid work, £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.