by Lynn Cox

lcox@thekmgroup.co.uk

TV star Robson Green was among the victims of a gym locker thief who was punished this week.

John Fletcher – who was camera-shy outside court this week – only realised he’d stolen from the chart-topping singer when he looked in his wallet and saw a family photo.

The father-of-two escaped a jail term after admitting he stole thousands of pounds from lockers in Maidstone and other parts of the South East.

Fletcher, 37, 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 joined gyms by using his girlfriend’s bank details and used his membership card to get into the changing rooms.

Once inside he used a screwdriver to pry open lockers and rifle through them to find people’s wallets.

Fletcher admitted two counts of stealing cash from lockers when he appeared before Maidstone Magistrates Court.
At least seven other similar offences were taken into consideration at the time.

At his sentencing this week, another five offences were taken into consideration including stealing Robson Green’s wallet which contained several hundred pounds.

The two charges he admitted related to thefts from the David Lloyd gym in Maidstone.
He also admitting carrying out thefts at other health centres including Larkfield Leisure Centre, a club in Kidbrooke and at other David Lloyd gyms in Surrey.
He stole Mr Green’s wallet from a gym in Surrey.

Fletcher, of Hastings, was given a 12 month community order which involves him carrying out 200 hours of unpaid work. No orders for costs or compensation were made.

Chairman of the bench Tina Richards said: “You must comply with the order else you risk going to prison.
“Get back on track with your life, we never want to see you back here.”

DS Darren Ryder who led the investigation said: “By working with the security team at David Lloyd we were able to track who was using the gym and correlate these with when the offences took place.

“Using this information and CCTV, we were finally able to crack who had been carrying out the series of thefts, which always used the same tactics to break into the lockers. I hope that this serves as a warning.”