A bungling thief has been jailed after police found eyeholes cut out from a homemade balaclava used in a robbery.

Daniel Bale, 37, of Station Road, Maidstone, wore a mask made from a hat while stealing cash and cigarettes from a petrol station.

On May 8, 2022, Daniel and his partner in crime, Karl Evans, put on the homemade balaclavas to rob a petrol station in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Bale was seen on CCTV going into the shop and aggressively waving his arms at a member of staff, who retreated into the back office for safety.

He grabbed around £300 from the till and £70 worth of cigarettes.

Evans was seen on CCTV outside the shop acting as a lookout.

An off-duty police officer chased the pair back to a house in Ashlawn Road where Bale and Evans barricaded themselves in a downstairs toilet.

Officers arrested them and found the stolen items in a washing machine.

They also discovered bits of material cut out to make eyeholes in a pair of hats and the scissors they used.

Last week at Warwick Crown Court, Bale was handed a three-year-and-five-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to robbery and failing to surrender to police at the appointed time.

Evans, 34, of Ashlawn Road, Rugby, was jailed last year.

He was sentenced to 20 months after pleading guilty to robbery and failing to surrender to police at the appointed time.

PC Maddie Hodgkins-Warren, who led the investigation, said: “Evans and Bale are certainly not criminal masterminds; they left a trail of evidence that made it very difficult for them to do anything other than plead guilty.

“However, it must have been an extremely frightening ordeal for the victim.

“Thankfully he wasn’t hurt and the quick thinking of a passing off-duty police officer meant the pair were quickly identified as suspects and arrested.”