WHEN his sister was jailed and his uncle was told he had terminal cancer, 24-year-old Matthew Chandler wanted to drown his sorrows, a court was told yesterday.

But, as he later told police, he was ''skint.'' So he walked out of a supermarket in Knaresborough Road, Harrogate, without paying for an £11.98 case of lager, the town's magistrates were told by Steven Ovenden, prosecuting.

By the time police were alerted by shop staff, who knew Chandler well, he had drunk his way through eight of the 20 bottles.

When Chandler, of Kennion Road, Harrogate, pleaded guilty to theft, he was fined £50 and ordered to pay £50 costs and compensation for the drink.

Clive Farndon, mitigating, said Chandler stole after being told by his mother that her brother had only a year to live because of cancer and that his sister had just been sent down for 12 months.

''Unsurprisingly, he was in a state of shock,'' said Mr Farndon.