A man has appeared in court charged with stealing more than £43,000 worth of lager from an industrial estate near Hythe.

Aaron Walsh, from Liverpool, is alleged to have taken a Scania lorry before hooking it up to the trailer containing the cans of lager at the Lympne Industrial Estate in the early hours of May 17.

Kent Police launched an appeal after the incident in which they described how the thief reportedly stole a cab before hooking it up to a trailer and driving out of the 24-hour industrial estate in Otterpool Lane near Port Lympne Animal Reserve.

Walsh, 24, appeared before magistrates in Newport last Friday facing other charges of theft after another incident at a biscuit factory in South Wales in June.

He was arrested last Wednesday and charged the following day by Gwent Police in connection with the theft of £20,000 worth of biscuits in a trailer at the Burton’s Biscuits factory – which makes Maryland cookies, Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels – in Cwmbran near Newport.

The trailer was discovered empty in Warrington in Cheshire later the same day and police have seized other vehicles thought to have been involved in the incident.

A spokesman for Gwent Police confirmed Walsh denied all the charges against him and was remanded in custody ahead of his next appearance on November 5.