Former Blue Nabil Abidallah was given a three-year conditional discharge at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court on Monday after pleading guilty to burglary. The Dutch midfielder took electrical equipment from his former flat in Hadleigh having left some months earlier.
Abidallah, who made three appearances as a sub for Town between 2001 and 2003, was playing non-league football with Clacton Town when he moved into the flat in 2004. After failing to pay the rent, eviction was threatened in February 2005.
The former Ajax trainee disappeared soon after, leaving some of his possessions behind, but the following May is understood to have let himself into the property to remove a TV and video recorder valued at £5,000 which he took to Cash Converters where he gave his name.
Police were alerted and a warrant was issued for the arrest of the 23-year-old, who now lives back in his native Amsterdam, and he was detained at Harwich last Sunday.