A SHOPLIFTER was stopped walking through Bury town centre carrying a five foot-long carpet rug. Bury magistrates heard how Anthony Stewart, aged 38, struggled to come up with a plausible explanation about why he was carrying it.

A police officer who saw him with the £30 rug found it had been part of a trader's in the Market Hall. Stewart, of Hornby Street, Bury, who pleaded guilty to theft, stole the carpet to help feed his heroin addiction. He was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order and ordered to pay £55 costs.

with a condition that he attend the Think First programme