A career thief who used a pensioner's stolen bank card and swiped jewellery worth thousands from a shopping centre has been put behind bars.

Valter Pimentel, from Folkestone, also burgled an Asda store, shoplifted at Tesco and raided a clothes shop during a crime spree spanning more than a year.

The 42-year-old has now been jailed for 15 months in a move police say will protect the public and businesses from the "repeat offender".

He was sentenced on Tuesday at Canterbury Crown Court after admitting five charges, including burglary, fraud and theft.

A judge was told the first offence was committed on July 28, 2021, when Pimentel fraudulently used a bank card that had been stolen from a woman in her 70s in Sandgate Road, Folkestone.

On October 14 that year, he swiped various items from a Tesco store in Cheriton High Street, and £2,500 worth of jewellery from Bouverie Place Shopping Centre three days later.

He returned to the Folkestone mall in April 2022, where he stole clothes from a shop, and on Christmas Eve last year burgled a nearby Asda store.

Police have confirmed some of the offences took place during the term of a suspended sentence Pimentel had previously been given for affray.

Sergeant Sarah Williams said: "Kent Police is determined to protect residents and businesses from the attentions of repeat offenders like Pimentel.

"I'm pleased my team was able to prove the number of offences he was behind and the court has recognised the seriousness of his continued actions with this jail sentence."