A burly Romanian man splashed out on a bizarre garment to wear under his clothes before going shoplifting - a women's swimsuit.

But it went far from swimmingly for Valentine Craciun as staff spotted him stealing from John Lewis at Bluewater shopping centre.

Craciun was arrested along with Vlad Codreanu. Craciun claimed he wore it because he felt the cold, while Codreanu said it provided support for a bad back.

But Maidstone Crown Court heard the real reason for the attire - Slazenger swimsuits worn back to front - was to conceal stolen clothes tightly underneath it and avoid detection.

Craciun, of no fixed address, admitted attempted theft of £260 worth of clothing shortly before he was due to stand trial.

Codreanu, of High Street, Harrow, London, denied theft and was acquitted by a jury of six men and six women after deliberating for four-and-a-half hours.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor said the two men were seen going separately into changing rooms with several items on October 28 last year.

Codreanu, 30, went in with three items but only came out with two. The third had been hidden under his clothes, it was alleged.

“Effectively, he had put it on,” said Mr Taylor. It was discovered, he said, that he had concealed a £195 padded gilet.

“When stopped and searched he was wearing a female swimsuit under his clothing back to front,” said Mr Taylor. “The reason for that was to tighten the clothing around him. It was sucking in everything he stole.”

Around the same time Craciun, 36, was behaving in a similar way. He went into a changing room with eight items.

He handed all of them back but when stopped by store detectives he was found to have a magnetic “detagger” device and three security tags.

Also found under his clothes were a pair of jeans and two tops. He too was wearing a swimming costume.

Michael Cogan, for Craciun, said his client accepted he went out to steal. He was in custody for theft of a handbag and could have been released last Friday.

But Mr Cogan added that Craciun, who was jailed for three years in Spain in 2009 for robbery, was being deported by the Home Office.

“He is anxious to be deported and simply wants to go back home,” he added.

Codreanu, who has cautions for shoplifting, denied in evidence he was wearing the stolen gilet. He said of the swimsuit: “I was wearing it back to front because I wanted to protect my back. It was very comfortable.”

He added: “I am wearing one today.”

Sentencing Craciun to nine weeks imprisonment, Judge Jeremy Carey told him: “You were wearing a female swimming costume and prepared to steal various items of male clothing. You were caught in the act.

“For reasons I find inexplicable you waited until today to admit your criminal wrongdoing. You had planned this escapade of dishonesty and kitted yourself out in order to do so.

“It was only because of the keen eye of security staff you were prevented from getting away with it.”

The judge added: “You have expressed a desire to get back to your native country. The sooner you are returned there the better it will be for this country which would be worse off because of your dishonesty.”

After Codreanu’s acquittal, the judge told jurors: “This is perhaps a good example of an important direction I gave you - that we try cases in this country on the evidence and not suspicion, and there it is.”