STAFF at a shopping centre set up a loo watch to catch toilet roll thieves.

Blackburn magistrates heard more than £600 worth of toilet rolls had been stolen from the public toilets at the Accrington Arndale Centre over the last 12 months.

And heroin addicts Mark Andrew Fisher and Natalie Louise Long admitted they were responsible for some of the toilet paper pinching.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said Long was caught leaving the toilets with a toilet roll stuffed up her top.

"Both accepted they were hard up and they had taken some of the rolls over the last 12 months" said Miss Allan.

"We may never get to the bottom of who has stolen £600 worth.

Angela Rossi, defending, said her clients accepted that on three or four other occasions they had stolen toilet rolls from the Arndale.

"The prosecution accept they have not been the only ones stealing toilet roll from these toilets.

“They are desperately embarrassed by what they have done."

Fisher, 27, and Long, 21, both of Albert Street, Accrington, pleaded guilty to theft and both were given a conditional discharge.