A thief - banned from every B&Q in the UK - stole nearly £3,000 of drills and other equipment from the Maidstone branch after secretly making a hole in the store’s fence.

Scott Allacker targeted the Barker Road chain on four occasions in December and January, going into the shop to line up his loot near the boundary, then collecting it after leaving.

The 44-year-old, from Essex, had already been banned from all of the B&Q stores for his previous thieving but claimed he thought the order applied only to a single store.

But the judge, Recorder Elroy Claxton retorted: “But he went into (the store) to steal!”

Prosecutor Natasha Hausdorff told How Allacker had come to Maidstone and cut a hole in the perimeter mesh before placing the equipment, worth £150, £1250, £980 and £480 outside the fence on four separate occasions.

Now he has received a fresh three-year ban from entering all 372 of the DIY firm’s shops. He was given a three-month jail term suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Judge, Recorder Elroy Claxton told him: “They are serious offences.”

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