A MAN with long term serious medical problems has been jailed for a shoplifting expedition from Manchester to the York Designer Outlet.

Allan Fenton had chronic emphysema and deep vein thrombosis and his health was deteriorating, said defence solicitor Keith Whitehouse.

Fenton, 45, walked into York Magistrates' Court with the aid of a stick.

But district judge Adrian Lower said however sympathetic he may be to Fenton’s medical condition, it couldn’t save the 45-year-old Mancunian from jail.

“You will have had all of these illnesses when you came to York,” he told Fenton.

“None of your ill health prevented you from seemingly being able to help yourself to goods in two different stores.”

Fenton, of Welbeck Street South, Ashton-under-Lyne, pleaded guilty to two thefts and was jailed for 12 weeks.

He has a long criminal record for theft and other offences.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said Fenton and another man with him were acting so suspiciously at 7.15pm on July 23 at the outlet south of York, its security and CCTV staff kept an eye on them.

In Luke’s, Fenton went in without a jacket and came out wearing a jacket from the store he had not paid for. It was worth £90.

The two men went out to a car, returned to the shopping mall and at the Ralph Lauren store, the two stole two gilets worth together £238 before separating.

Security staff successfully detained Fenton. A second man got away and drove off but was stopped at Wetherby in a hired car.

Mr Whitehouse said Fenton claimed a friend of his had offered to take the 45-year-old for a drive and that the initial intention had not been to go shoplifting.

But the district judge rejected that explanation.

“This was a pre-planned expedition,” he said. The pair had travelled from Ashton-under-Lyne to York, where there were plenty of tourist sights they could have visited.

Instead they had gone to the York Designer Outlet.

A 41-year-old man from Ashton-under-Lyne denied theft and driving without a licence and chose to be tried by a jury.

He was sent to York Crown Court where he will appear next month.