A DRUG addict who hid in a Subway restaurant toilet in order to steal a charity collection pot has been spared jail.

Leigh Cooper also targeted the pub in which his mother worked and stole more than £5,000 from a safe during his short-lived spree of offences in the city.

The 38-year-old of Rectory Road, Oxford, had already admitted two counts of burglary, one count of theft and another of fraud by false representation.

He also admitted two counts of being in possession of class A drugs.

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Cooper was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court today for the crime spree which took place over five days in November last year.

Outlining the case prosecutor Kellie Enever said the first offence - a burglary - took place at the Subway, Cowley Road, on November 15.

Cooper hid in the toilets until the restaurant was closed and went on to snatch a collection pot containing £60, which had been destined for charity.

The following day he went to Oxford Brookes University's John Henry Brookes Building in Headington.

There he stole items from a student's coat pocket, which included a purse and bank cards.

He went on to to use a stolen card from that theft to buy items including scratch cards and mobile phone top ups.

On November 18 he raided the Six Bells pub in Headington, where his mother worked.

In that burglary he snatched £5,205 from a safe.

On his arrest two days later he was also found to have in his possession six wraps of class A drugs - crack cocaine and heroin.

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The court also heard at his sentencing hearing that Cooper has a number of previous crimes to his name, totalling 32 offences.

In mitigation Peter Du Feu said his client's offending was driven by his 'underlying class A drug habit.'

He said: "He will be rightly ashamed of his conduct. He understands the harm he has caused by his conduct."

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said drugs had been the 'bane' of Cooper's life.

Speaking of the burglary in which Cooper targeted the pub where his own mother worked he said: "Any greater breach of trust is difficult to imagine.

"She bailed you out many, many times and this was really the last straw.

"Custody is the only option in this case."

Cooper was jailed for a total of 16 months for all of the offences.

That sentence was ordered to be suspended for two years.

As part of that suspended sentence order Cooper was also made subject to a drug rehabilitation requirement for six months.

He will also be subject to a mental health treatment requirement for 12 months and he must pay a statutory victim surcharge.

No court costs or compensation was ordered to be paid at the hearing.