A THIEF who stole a poppy appeal collection box has admitted his crime was `despicable'.

Glenn Ellidge, 37, snatched the charity box containing £26 for ex-servicemen from a Sainsbury's counter.

Magistrates decided not to send him to prison after hearing he was responding well to treatment for heroin addiction.

Ellidge told the M.E.N: "It's not something I'm proud of. I know it was despicable. That's what the prosecuter said and he was wearing a poppy. He was shaking his head when he realised I wasn't going down."

Ellidge, of Westcott Avenue, Withington, apologised to ex-servicemen and friends and relatives of those who died at war.

He admitted that he had once had a £400-a-day heroin habit but claimed that he had been off drugs for eight months and stole the money after a `funny turn' because of taking the heroin substitute methadone and sleeping tablets.

Manchester magistrates heard Ellidge has 84 previous convictions, mostly for theft. He was given a suspended six-week prison sentence.

Chairman of the bench Roger Walker told him: "This indeed was an appalling theft and you should be absolutely disgusted with yourself."

Prosecutor Jim Mowbray said security staff grabbed Ellidge after he took the box from a cigarette kiosk and hid it under his coat at the store on Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield.

David Philpott, defending, said Ellidge had a long-term drug problem. He said: "He had been progressing well on a drugs prevention programme and this was a lapse."

The court heard Ellidge was in breach of a conditional discharge imposed in May and gave him a four-week jail sentence suspended for a year.

Ellidge told the M.E.N. he wanted to go into schools to warn kids about drugs after a request from his probation worker.

He said: "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. You end up with bad health problems, a bad criminal record and you are in and out of jail all your life."