WAREHOUSEMAN Matthew Dolphin's opportunist theft of a bus driver's cash bag and drunken antics in a hospital casualty department got him a dressing down from a court at Harrogate yesterday.

Presiding magistrate Brian Pattyson told Dolphin, of Inman Grove, Knaresborough, he had a "quite abysmal" record for a 21-year-old with a lot of his offending down to drinking too much.

Dolphin, who admitted being drunk and disorderly, theft from a bus at Harrogate bus station and failing to answer bail, was put on probation for a year and told to do 60 hours of unpaid community work. He was also ordered to pay £175 costs and £51 compensation for the theft.