Thief asked for help.

A MAN asked a shop assistant to help him with his shopping list - and ran off with the goods after she collected them for him.

The cheeky thief appeared before Kirklees magistrates yesterday.

He admitted stealing the toiletries worth pounds 50 from the Batley branch of Boots on April 5. James Weekes, prosecuting, said that Scott Bolland asked for help in the store.

He said: "He went in with a list, found a member of staff and asked for assistance in finding the items on the list.

"These were found for him but he told the member of staff that he wished to continue looking around and was left alone.

"He then ran out of the store taking the items."

Bolland was arrested and told police that his haul included baby shampoo and toothpaste and he stole these because he knew they would be easy to sell.

Magistrates were told that Bolland also stole groceries from the Co-op in Dewsbury on March 30. Bolland, 30, of Lady Ann Road in Soothill, Batley, was seen leaving the store with a carrier bag full of items he didn't pay for.

Mr Weekes said that a woman had helped block the view of Bolland transferring food, worth pounds 28, from the basket.

Bolland, who said that he was on heroin at the time, was last in court in April for shoplifting when he was given a drug rehabilitation order for six months.

He was ordered to pay pounds 78 compensation and pounds 85 costs.