A MAN who stole charity clothing from a recycling bin has been given a 12-month conditional discharge.

Tomas Apinys took £200 worth of charity-bound items from the clothes bank at Tesco’s Mold store.

Flintshire Council offices were keeping watch on the car park and spotted Apinys and an accomplice emptying and placing the clothes in the back of a van.

They were stopped as they passed the town's Alun High School, but claimed the clothes belonged to their employer.

North East Wales Magistrates Court was told that Apinys used to work for Clothes Aid which works in the third sector but at the time of the offence he was no longer in employment.

Apinys, 30, of Mansfield Drive, Blackley, Manchester, admitted stealing clothes belonging to Soex Uk Ltd at Mold on January 15.

Emma Simoes, defending, told the Mold court: “He had no right to take the clothes.”

Magistrates also ordered Apinys to pay £85 court costs and a £30 victim surcharge.