A SACKED Blockbuster employee stole a games console on his last day at work.

Adam Carter, 22, of Wolage Drive, Wantage, admitted one count of theft by an employee on March 22 last year from the store in Market Place.

Naomi Perry, prosecuting, said he helped himself to a PlayStation 3, two controllers and a Blu-ray disk on his last day at work.

She told Recorder Patrick Hamlin that Carter worked at the store between July and September, 2012.

Stephen Parker, defending, said Carter had been caught by his manager fixing customers’ consoles and keeping the money for himself so he was fired.

The barrister said that on his last day in the job, Carter took the console, which was found in his home with his fingerprints on it, because he held a grudge against his former employer. Miss Perry added that the defendant had previously carried out a string of seven domestic burglaries in 2009.

Recorder Hamlin, sitting at Oxford Crown Court, told Carter if he had admitted his crime earlier it could have been dealt with at the magistrates’ court.

He said the defendant could be seen as a “young man who has offended seriously before and is back at it”.

But he added: “This crime was peculiar to the circumstances you found yourself in. It was a bad blip.

“You were bearing something of a grudge towards your employer and you took this console as a result of that on your last day.”

He sentenced him to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work, and told him to pay £200 compensation and a £60 victims’ surcharge.