A FORMER public schoolboy who stole a Poppy Appeal collection tin from a Swindon McDonald’s told magistrates he was deeply ashamed.

Appearing before magistrates in the town yesterday, Wesley Auburn was given a two-year community order for stealing the Royal British Legion box last November – as well as three other shoplifting offences.

Magistrate Paul Sample said the crimes were the 'lowest of the low'.

The theft sparked outrage last year when police issued CCTV showing Auburn and a woman in the Great Western Way fast food restaurant. PC Steve Yeates of Swindon Police blasted: “This theft is a deplorable crime.

"Not only have the suspects stolen money from a good cause, but they have also shown shocking disrespect to everything the Poppy Appeal represents.”

Tony Nowogrodzki, defending, said his client had taken the box “on impulse”. He suffered from a variety of mental health complaints and had a tendency to fiddle with things.

He had been waiting in McDonald’s with a friend and had picked up the box. “He started fiddling with it and the next thing was he walked out with it,” Mr Nowogrodzki. He was not a habitual charity shop thief: “On being charged he said how ashamed he was.”

Auburn was said to have had a tough life. Born in Africa, he was adopted by a wealthy English family and sent to public school. He had been subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse as a child, including having his toenails pulled by his abuser. The abuse had caused him to suffer PTSD. He turned to alcohol and drugs, but was now free of the latter and had a prescription to heroin substitute Espranor.

The latest theft, committed on Monday, happened after he bumped into a group he knew in Gorse Hill. They had demanded he steal the Philips shavers from Tesco Ocotal Way.

Unfortunately, he was well-known in the supermarket as it was where he got his Espranor prescription daily.

“This is the life of Wesley Auburn. He’s a man who is habitually taken for granted by the ruffians of the town,” Mr Nowogrodzki said.

Auburn, of Croft Road, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and failing to surrender. Magistrates sentenced him to a two-year community order with a requirement to complete 30 rehabilitation activity days. Chairman of the bench Paul Sample said: “

You might think with thefts from shops there’s no victim, but in the case of the Royal British Legion that was the lowest of the low. You’ve expressed remorse and we’re going to punish you for that offence and for the other offences of theft by way of compensation.”