A thief operating with 19 different aliases and caught with tights on his head following a raid on a shop told police he was wearing them to keep warm.

Charles Traverso, of no fixed address, admitted stealing money, alcohol and cigarettes after forcing a lock to break into the convenience store on Union Street in Maidstone at around 2.45am on December 20.

The 43-year-old was caught on the store’s CCTV stealing the items before leaving via the back entrance.

He was arrested in the garden of a neighbouring property, wearing gloves, tights on his head, a hat and a hood.

He had a black rucksack on his back containing tools including a screwdriver and £92.37 in loose change in his coat pocket.

Officers searching nearby found the till from the shop in the rubbish yard at the back of the property, along with bottles of alcohol which had been stolen.

Traverso was under a supervision order for a previous burglary at the time of the offence.

He initially denied being the man on the security camera footage and told officers that he gets cold and was wearing tights on his head in order to keep his hat on while riding his bike.

Traverso also claimed he had been sleeping in the back of a vehicle near the convenience store after an argument with his girlfriend and that he had been woken by the police officers’ torches.

This had caused him to panic and run because he was not meant to be there leading to him finding himself in the garden where he was arrested.

However, he later pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary and Maidstone Crown Court heard he had a string of previous convictions for other burglary offences as wells as crimes linked to fraud and drugs.

He was then jailed for two years and five months.

PC Lucy Gentry, of Kent Police’s West Division, said: "Burglary is a serious crime that badly affects the victims whether they suffer a break-in at their home address or business.

"There is no such thing as a victimless crime. Serial offenders such as Traverso have to realise that we will prosecute them to the full extent of the law."