A drug addict with a "history of substance misuse" stole medication and syringes from a hospital while being treated there for a foot injury, a court has heard. 

William Loasby, 40, had been admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King's Lynn with a sore foot but stole needles and medication while he was there.

Norwich Crown Court heard Loasby suffered two seizures while at the hospital and was being taken for an MRI scan on July 30 this year when he took the medication.

Norwich Crown CourtNorwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest) Loasby "took needles and drugs" that "could well have been very important".

Judge Katharine Moore told Loasby the drugs, if they "ended up in the wrong hands" could have had "fatal consequences".

Loasby, formerly of Hope Street, Lynn, appeared at court on Tuesday (December 3) after admitting theft.

He had also admitted two breaches of a suspended sentence order.

In August last year the defendant received a two year jail term, suspended for two years, after he admitted supplying class A drugs, namely heroin, between January and February 2022.

But Loasby failed to attend appointments with probation in May and August this year.

Despite the defendant's pleas the sentence was adjourned until December 10, following claims by Loasby that he might have medical reasons for missing the two appointments.

Loasby, who has 40 previous convictions for 80 offences, was remanded into custody until sentence.

Isobel Ascherson, mitigating, said this was a man "who was not very well" when the theft occurred.

She said Loasby was a man with a "drug history" and had been an addict for "many years".

She said he had been taken into hospital with a foot injury but suffered "two seizures" while he was there.