A patient accused of risking others by entering a hospital toilet with his oxygen tank, to smoke heroin, was told by JPs that he had been “very lucky” a nurse saw him.

Magistrates’ chairwoman Manu Patiar, at Llandudno, told 34-year-old Iain Gibson, of Old Colwyn,: ”You really posed a risk to the public.

“Were it not for the vigilance of nursing staff we don’t want to imagine what would have happened.

“It wasn’t a wise thing to do.”

Diane Williams, prosecuting, said the worried nurse saw a plume of smoke when she opened the toilet door.

Gibson, unemployed, of Llanelian Road, was trying to stuff foil in his washbag.

He had been lighting the heroin.

“She said ‘what are you doing? You could kill us all, that could blow up’.

He said ‘I didn’t know oxygen was flammable’,” Mrs Williams added.

Gibson pleaded guilty to possessing heroin at Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan, in September.

He was fined £140 with £115 costs.

Defence solicitor Graham Parry said the addict had pneumonia.

He was going to struggle with heroin withdrawal and took it in the toilet.

But he was now on a substitute for illegal drugs and awaiting detox.

“Everything is in place for overcoming his addiction,” Mr Parry remarked.