A father who played a fixed odds machine at a betting shop with cash stolen in a robbery the day before has escaped being locked up.

Lee Rice was arrested after notes were retrieved from the machine and found to be stained with dye.

They came from a raid on a security van at Asda supermarket in Northfleet on November 6 2012 in which £17,000 was stolen.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how security guard Bhusang Tamang bravely fought back despite taking a heavy beating in a scene described as reminiscent of the film Crocodile Dundee.

"He has put drugs behind him. He has two jobs. He has become a father. He says it is time to step up. He has kept out of trouble for two years” - John Fitzgerald

The former Gurkha took out his radio and hurled it at the masked raiders, striking one of them on the head.

They still managed to make off with the cashbox containing £17,000 from the Loomis van which was making a delivery to the supermarket at the Imperial Retail Park.

The next day 28-year-old Rice and three others went to William Hill in New Eltham, south east London, and fed some of the cash into machines. They were identified from CCTV footage.

Prosecutor Donna East said a week later Rice did the same at Coral in Sevenoaks and obtained winnings of £121.

Miss East said the total amount “laundered” from the robbery was about £200.

After his arrest Rice, of Hockenden Lane, Swanley, went on the run for about a year.

John Fitzgerald, defending, submitted an immediate prison sentence was “not needed” and would not be a constructive approach.

“He was given the opportunity to make some fast money to buy some drugs,” he said.

“The real feather in his cap is the progress he has made. He has put drugs behind him.

“He has two jobs. He has become a father. He says it is time to step up. He has kept out of trouble for two years.”

Rice, who admitted money laundering, was sentenced to three months imprisonment suspended for two years with 100 hours unpaid work.

He will be under supervision for 18 months and have to attend a thinking skills programme to address “substance issues”.

Judge Martin Joy said the fact Rice was using some of the money the day after the robbery put him very close to it.