A thief ran off leaving his children and their pushchair in a supermarket car park when police spotted him after he’d stolen £100 of goods.

Connor Sharp had gone into the Sainsbury’s store in Aylesford and started putting various items including food and clothes into his child’s pushchair and left the store without paying for them.

But his actions, on September 7 last year, were spotted by a staff member and the police were alerted and called to the scene.

When officers arrived in the car park and started to approach Sharp, he ran off and left his children and the pushchair with his mother who was at the store at the same time.

The 24-year-old fled and wasn't captured by police on the day he stole the items which were worth £109.50.

However, a couple of months later in November he went to the police station for a voluntary interview and made no comment to officers.

Sharp, of John Street, Rochester, was later charged with shoplifting and admitted the offence when he appeared before magistrates in Maidstone on June 6.

Debbie Jones prosecuting said: “He ran off when the officers arrived in the car park and left his children and the pushchair with the items in with his mother.

“He has committed like offences before and was given a community order for them in 2018.”

The court also heard the self-employed labourer had lost his job and had two children and a partner to take care of at the time and had been struggling financially.

The bench heard he took the food for his children so they could eat.

Magistrates were told stealing was not the route he had wanted to take, but he did so out of desperation to feed his children, and that he panicked in the car park when he saw the police.

The court also heard Sharp now had three children to provide for and was on Universal Credit.

All the goods were recovered on the day he took them.

The bench were told Sharp suffered from Asperger's Syndrome and they decided to place him on a 18-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £26 and £85 court costs.