CCTV shows how a brazen thief waved at a supermarket security camera as he used a bank card stolen from someone’s gym locker.

Footage also shows John Fletcher slipping through turnstiles in order to enter changing rooms at facilities in Ashford.

The 50-year-old has now been jailed after spending more than £2,000 on the stolen cards.

It comes after police launched an investigation following a series of similar thefts from gyms in Ashford in January and February this year. A further offence was then found to have taken place at a facility in Eastbourne on Friday, February 10.

Officers studied CCTV from the gyms and saw Fletcher was squeezing through turnstiles to get in. On some occasions, accomplice Laura McGannan would distract staff while he did so.

More than £1,000 was stolen during the thefts and more than £2,000 was spent using banks cards which were taken. Further CCTV shows Fletcher in shops when the cards were used – where at one point he even waves at the camera.

A car which officers linked to the offences was stopped near Tunbridge Wells on February 24 and both Fletcher and McGannan were arrested.

Fletcher, from Bexhill-on-Sea, was charged with six counts of burglary and 10 counts of fraud following an investigation.

He admitted all 16 counts and was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Canterbury Crown Court on June 8.

McGannan, 35, of Main Road, Winchelsea, was given a six-month suspended sentence after admitting five counts of burglary, following her role assisting Fletcher.

PC Michael Eeles, of the Kent crime squad, said: “CCTV showed Fletcher waving at a camera while he spent other people's money at a supermarket.

“I am pleased the quick work of detectives led to be him being arrested a few days later and he is now in prison, unable to further trouble the public.”