In 2013 Jack Harbour made national headlines after footage emerged of him being punched by a policeman in a Canterbury department store.

Then 23, he told of his disgust after he was struck in the head by an officer as he was restrained in a Debenhams holding room.

But fast forward three years and the prolific thief has completed the ultimate role reversal after landing himself in the dock for assaulting a police community support officer.

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He only narrowly avoided prison after admitting attacking the PCSO when he was confronted for stealing meat and booze from a shop in Sittingbourne.

Harbour also pleaded guilty to assaulting another man during the same incident, and a further shoplifting offence from a supermarket in Chatham.

The 26-year-old only escaped going to jail by the skin of his teeth after magistrates suspended a seven-month prison sentence for 18 months.

But it is by no means his first brush with the law.

VIDEO: This video was leaked to YouTube three years ago.

Following his arrest for a previous theft in 2013, a four-minute clip was leaked on YouTube which showed three PCs restraining Harbour in Debenhams after he was suspected of shoplifting.

One of them is seen punching Harbour in the head.

He complained at the time: “It’s wound me up. If it was the other way around and I’d punched them, I’d be doing two to three years now.

“The police are there to protect you. I don’t think it’s enough that they’ve been suspended. They should get the sack and be punished.”

All three officers, at the time based at Canterbury police station, were suspended and the case was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which decided it was suitable for Kent Police to investigate.

The CPS examined the assault allegation against the PC seen striking Harbour and ruled there was not enough evidence “to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.

But all three officers were charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice “by failing to retain and reveal” that CCTV was available from the holding room.

The trio denied any offence, and in July last year a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

All three officers later returned to full duty.