A father-of-two has been banned from every gym in the country after he stole thousands of pounds from gym lockers in Maidstone and other parts of the South East.

John Fletcher, 37, stole from unsuspecting fitness fanatics at various gyms and leisure centres.

Fletcher, who has a lengthy criminal record and has been in prison before, duped gym staff into thinking he was joining clubs to work out.

But magistrates heard how he used his membership card to get into the changing rooms and used a 8in screwdriver to pry open lockers and rifle through them to find people's wallets.

Some lockers he broke into contained wallets with just £10 in them, while others held hundreds. One such outing netting him around £900.

Fletcher admitted two counts of stealing cash from lockers when he appeared before magistrates this week.

At least seven other similar offences were taken into consideration.

The two charges he admitted related to thefts from the David Lloyd gym in Maidstone.

The Maidstone bench heard how he had also carried out thefts at other health centres including Larkfield Leisure Centre, a club in Kidbrooke and at other David Lloyd gyms in Surrey.

Fletcher, of Hastings, East Sussex, will be sentenced on Tuesday, January 25.

Chairman of the bench Derek Ireland said: "This is so serious a custodial sentence must be considered.

"Breaking into all these lockers added up to quite a bit of money being taken and people expect their lockers to remain secure."

Until he is sentenced, Fletcher is banned from entering any gyms or health centres.