Daniel Coleman, who was involved in handling items stolen from a family on Christmas Day, has been given a chance by a judge.

Coleman, 24, of Kingsbury Square, Melksham, was put on a suspended sentence after being caught with the proceeds of the unfestive theft, which included Christmas lights and part of the tree.

After being spared jail the 24-year-old failed to turn up regularly for a drug rehabilitation order, leaving him at risk of serving the four-month term.

But after hearing he had sorted out his accommodation issues a judge said he would not activate the sentence, and told him to do unpaid work for the community.

Judge Tim Mousley QC, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, also extended the drug rehabilitation requirement by three months to make up for the time he missed.

At the hearing on Tuesday, he said: “I am going to give you a chance. I am going to mark this breach by getting you to do 30 hours of unpaid work.”

Earlier the defendant, representing himself, said he had been tough family difficulties when his fiancée and young child had left him, taking everything with them.

Coleman was living in a village just north of Dartmoor in Devon, when the offence took place last Christmas.

A man staying with him targeted a neighbouring house belonging to a family with 18-month old twins, and ransacked it. When police went to the property where he was staying, a few doors away, they found part of the tree and food stolen from the kitchen.