A man was sentenced Friday to a year at Westgate prison for his "sticky fingers".

Andre Anthony Tucker was sentenced by Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves in Magistrates' Court following another charge of theft.

The 20-year-old Pembroke man was charged with stealing from a personal trainer at a gym in the City of Hamilton. The complainant told Police that the man had stolen her black Versace wallet which contained $250.

Crown counsel Charmaine Smith reported that Tucker had entered the gym at 6 a.m. on June 20.

At 6.15 a.m., the personal trainer claimed she returned to her office to use the phone. Tucker was in the office when she returned, at which point he told her he had an interest in joining the club. She told the man to return in an hour.

Later the complainant looked in her brown Gucci purse and noticed her wallet was missing. She concluded that the man had taken her wallet as it had been in the bag two minutes before Tucker entered, and went missing shortly following his departure.

After examining the surveillance tapes of the office, her suspicions were proved true. Tucker turned himself in at the Hamilton Police Station, but refused to cooperate.

Eventually, he told Police he had used the money to buy cocaine and wanted help for his drug problem. The wallet was recovered intact by Police, but the money was missing.

Defence lawyer Craig Attridge told Mr. Greaves that Tucker's problem with theft was related to his drug addiction.

Mr. Greaves objected to this notion, saying: "You were in here on Monday (June 24) and you said you had no substance abuse problems. You say you had none on Monday when you knew you could then walk free, but now on Friday, when you can go to jail, you claim one."

"You are a trickster, but everybody's learning tricks now. You'll have to come up with something new. You can't trick me," he added.

Mr. Attridge then told Mr. Greaves, "you have a suspicious mind", before explaining that the defendant had now "admirably" admitted his problem.

Mr. Greaves scoffed at this idea, and said: "Admirably, you mean cleverly."

The magistrate then read out Tucker's string of prior convictions, which included several incidences of theft.

Mr. Greaves then said to Mr. Attridge: "There's about a hundred convictions here. He's had more experience in this business than you and I and a 1000 others put together."

He then sentenced Tucker to one year in Westgate and recommended that he receive drug treatment while incarcerated.

Tucker had earlier this week been convicted on two counts of theft before Mr. Greaves.

At the time Mr. Greaves said: "This man needs treatment for his fingers."