A JUDGE has given a drug user time to deal with his habit before he is sentenced for stealing cash from Pompey’s function room.
Daniel Powell has pleaded guilty to taking nine till bags from Fratton Park containing £1,160 in loose change.
He took the cash after he sneaked into the venue on February 9.
A report containing an assessment of his addiction will now be prepared before he is sentenced at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court on April 5.
The court heard that Powell, 31, has been taking drugs since the age of 16.
Kathryn Rowe, defending, said he is desperate to change his ways and plans should be made to move him into alternative accommodation.
‘He has had enough of it (drugs),’ she said.
‘He has abused it since he was 16 and is anxious to come off the problem.
‘It’s not easy and it will take some time.’
‘If he was sent home then in time he would go back to the same old ways.’
Richard Buckland, chairman of the bench, said: ‘This is his last chance or else he knows where he is going to go.’
Mr Buckland asked Powell if he was keen to change his life, and Powell answered that he was.
Mr Buckland said: ‘Be as honest and helpful as you can and you will get yourself on the straight and narrow.’
Powell had already pleaded guilty at another hearing to a separate incident on February 2 where he threatened someone using abusive language in Havant Road, Emsworth.
He also resisted a police officer who tried to calm the situation down.
Powell, of Fyning Street, Landport, Portsmouth, will be sentenced for all of the incidents on the same date.
He was granted unconditional bail until he is sentenced.