A TEENAGER has appeared in court after he stole a workman’s motorcycle helmet and threw it in the River Ouse.

Nicholas Charles Holman, 19, took it from where the owner left it below scaffolding in King Street, central York, said Katy Varlow, prosecuting.

The victim, who was working on the scaffolding, didn’t know it had been stolen until his workmates told him.

Holman of Bellhouse Way, Foxwood, pleaded guilty to theft.

York magistrates ordered him to compensate the owner for the £65 cost of the helmet.

He was also fined £80 and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £30 statutory surcharge.

His solicitor Liam Hassan said Holman carried out the theft after his girlfriend had told him something about the helmet’s owner.

He now accepted that his actions had been wrong.