A HEROIN addicted thief who tried to take knives into York Magistrates Court has been jailed for 12 months.

Matthew Harding, prosecuting, said that Philip James Nicholas had knives of three inches, four inches and five inches long in his possession when he arrived at court on January 8.

But security staff took the weapons off him and called the police.

Within hours of being released on bail, he stole make-up worth £89.08 from Boots the Chemists as part of a heroin-fuelled crime spree that lasted three months.

Nicholas, 20, no fixed address, pleaded guilty to five charges of shoplifting in York, one of shoplifting in Doncaster, three of carrying knives at York Magistrates Court, and one of failure to answer bail.

York magistrates jailed him for 12 months, the maximum sentence they could issue.

His solicitor, Lee Goodchild, told them Nicholas was the man acquitted after staff at York Crown Court caught a rape trial jury watching television instead of considering their verdict. He had also been diagnosed as suffering from an untreatable drug-induced psychosis.

On January 8, he had taken the knives from the restaurant where he worked and was going to display them at his girlfriend's.

They were professional chef's knives, which are similar to throwing-knives.

When security staff at the entrance asked him if he had any metal objects, he showed them the knives, said Mr Goodchild.

Nicholas was a long-time heroin addict, had spent 13 months as a sex suspect on remand, and faced three trials before the rape case against him collapsed.

On his release from prison after his last sentence, he had wanted to go for drug treatment at a Christian community in Spain.

But because he was on prison licence, he could not leave the country.

Nicholas told the bench that he knew that if he stayed in Britain he would go back on heroin. He wanted to get off the drug, but needed help.

Updated: 11:03 Friday, August 08, 2003