Paul Christopher Taylor, of Wallerscote Road, took two bottles of whisky from a Tesco store on November 14 last year and walked out without paying.

When he was stopped outside by a store detective, Taylor said that he wanted to kill himself by drinking the whisky.

Unemployed Taylor, aged 22, admitted a string of theft and deception charges when he appeared before Northwich magistrates on Wednesday last week.

Miss Cara Pickering, prosecuting, told the court that following the incident with the stolen whisky, Taylor found himself in trouble again on January 6.

On that occasion he used a friend's credit card to buy 200 cigarettes from Tesco's.

Last summer, Miss Pickering added, Taylor had committed two similar offences.

Mr Bernard Keogh, defending, said that Taylor was an intelligent man, with nine GSCEs, who had got into trouble after his girlfriend had lost the baby she was expecting.

"This greatly upset him," Mr Keogh said. "He was shattered by it, and this personal tragedy seems to have veered him off the rails completely.

"He turned to drugs and alcohol and went seriously downhill, but he now has the intention of mending his ways."

The chairman of the magistrates, Mr John Meredith, told Taylor that he could easily have been jailed for what he had done.

However, the magistrates chose to make Taylor the subject of a combination order, comprising 100 hours community service and a year's probation.

He was also ordered to pay court costs of £150 plus compensation totalling £791.

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