One-legged conman said he was war veteran

Keith Marsh bought Barnsley conman Jamie Yoxall a drink in a town centre pub and gave him a cigarette after believing Yoxall had just returned from serving with the army.

But magistrates heard the thief repaid his generosity by reaching inside Mr Marsh's pocket and stealing his mobile phone and a hip flask worth 410 as they chatted.

Yoxall, who carried out the theft at the Courthouse Station pub, claimed after his arrest he had found the stolen property at a nearby bus station a short time afterwards.

The 32-year-old only owned up to the crime when he appeared in the dock at Barnsley magistrates' court, pleading guilty to theft.

District judge Michael Rosenberg described the crime as "dastardly," and sentenced Yoxall to do 60 hours of unpaid work, and made him the subject of a 12 month community order.

Yoxall, a jobless painter, said after his court appearance that he had been shunned by friends and acquaintances since the case came to light.

He added: "I did it on the spur of the moment when the bloke asked me how I'd lost my leg. I didn't want to let on that it was all down to drugs because it sounds so bad.

"So I just said the first thing that came into my head, and told him that I'd just got back from Afghanistan, and I'd lost it there."

Yoxall claimed he was drunk at the time and said he didn't remember stealing the phone or the hip flask.

Pub manager Wayne Kilner, who was an infantryman in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment before he joined the licensed trade, has banned Yoxall from the bar for life.