A thief got more than he bargained for when he drove off in a keyless car parked outside a hairdressers.

For asleep in the rear seat was a four-year-old child.

The boy’s distressed mother ran out of the salon in Chatham High Street screaming “My baby, my baby”.

When Solly Robinson realised he had the young passenger in the white Land Rover with tinted windows, he stopped and placed him on the pavement, before driving off.

The 31-year-old, of Rosemary Close, Chatham, who has a long criminal record, was originally charged with kidnap, but it was dropped after it was decided there was not a realistic prospect of conviction.

He was jailed for five months after admitting taking the car without consent and having no licence or insurance.

He was banned from driving for two years.

Judge Adele Williams said: “The consequences of him taking it are horrendous, or could have been.

"The Crown accepts he didn’t realise the child was in the back of the car.

“That is one of the problems or mischiefs of taking a vehicle without authority. His mother must have been terrified.”

Maidstone Crown Court heard the Land Rover had keyless technology which meant the key only had to be close by for the door to be opened and the car to be started.

Prosecutor Claire Cooper said Robinson took advantage of the situation on Friday, May 4, and got in and drove it away.

A witness saw the car being driven off erratically at about 4.45pm. After Robinson stopped down the road and put the boy on the pavement, a woman consoled him.

He was reunited with his mother within 10 minutes of him going missing.

Robinson abandoned the car in Rochester Street. He was arrested four days later at his mother’s home.

He told police he had not realised the child, who cannot be identified, was in the car because the rear windows were tinted. He added that the theft was “a spur of the moment thing”.

Asked by Judge Williams if Robinson was under the influence of drink and drugs, Miss Cooper replied: “He was certainly behaving erratically.”

He had 42 previous convictions for 73 offences including burglary, assault, drugs and aggravated car taking.

Kerry Waitt, defending, said in mitigation: “Doubtlessly, this was a distressing and traumatic incident for the unfortunate mother of the child. Mercifully, it was of short duration.”

Judge Williams told Robinson by TV link with Elmley Prison: “What happened was very serious. This case well illustrates part of the whole mischief of taking a vehicle without consent.

“You didn’t know what was in the car when you took it, and you just drove it away. Mercifully, you did realise there was a child in the car and you stopped, took the child out and placed him on the pavement. He was happily reunited with his mother within 10 minutes of the incident happening. But I have no doubt she found the whole incident deeply traumatic. She was not surprisingly terrified about the welfare of her child.” The judge added: “It is high time you sought to put your life in order.”

The maximum sentence for taking a vehicle without consent is six months imprisonment after a trial. Robinson was given a one month “discount” for his guilty plea.