A PROLIFIC criminal caught using bank cards stolen in a burglary from a house on the Beaumont Chase estate has been given a 12 month community sentence.

Last week MP Yasmin Quereshi met with residents who were so concerned about levels of crime that they spend nights patroling the area.

Bolton Crown Court heard how, in the early hours on November 19 last year, a house in Gleneagles was burgled. Within hours 44-year-old Karl McLoughlin was using two stolen bank cards to make purchases, amounting to £176, at a supermarket, corner store and McDonald’s in Bolton.

McLoughlin, of Bromwich Street, Bolton, was not involved in the burglary but pleaded guilty to two counts of handling the stolen cards and five counts of fraud.

At the time he had been released from prison on licence for a previous offence.

Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, defending, told the Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Timothy Clayson: “He is an incredibly bright man but has a long-standing issue with addictions.”

A part of the community order, Judge Clayson ordered McLoughlin to participate in 25 days of rehabilitation activities.

“It would be a very wonderful thing if you could leave it [your offending] behind,” he told him.