A MAN stole a bicycle from a railway station platform after mistaking it for his own, a court heard.

Arron Smith, 31, took the £250 bike from a security rack at Darlington Railway Station, on September 21, after believing it was the same bike taken from him weeks previously.

Darlington Magistrates’ Court heard Smith, of Leaholme Terrace, Blackhall Colliery, Hartlepool, panicked the following morning when he realised the bike was not his, and David Maddison, prosecuting, told the court another man had since taken possession of the bicycle.

Smith, who was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2009 for robbery, pleaded guilty to theft after being captured on CCTV.

Leanne Steinberg, mitigating, said Smith was extremely remorseful because he had ruined his recent good behaviour.

She said: “He had been drinking with his girlfriend and another friend.

“He saw the bike and believed it was his after losing a bike very similar a short time previously.

“When he woke up and saw it wasn’t his, he panicked.

"He was taking it over to his mother’s house when an unsavoury character took it off him.

“It was an extremely foolish thing to take the bike because he has managed to turn his life around and stay away from the people who got him into trouble.”

Magistrates gave Smith a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £250 compensation to his victim for the lost bike.