A man who stole items from a shed and sold them at a secondhand shop was caught after the owner spotted her bike for sale outside the store.

Kevin Coates, 37, broke into a shed in the garden of a home in Alexandra Avenue, Gillingham, in November and stole a bike, an electric strimmer and other garden tools.

Coates, of Cambria Avenue, Borstal, took them to the Sell It And Soon Bargains store on the corner of Balmoral Road and Gillingham Road, and sold the lot for £20 to fund his drug habit.

However, after the owner reported her shed had been broken into, she spotted the bike outside the shop and alerted police.

Coates admitted burglary and fraud by false representation when he appeared before magistrates in Medway who heard he had also been charged with a burglary at the William Hill betting shop in Canterbury Street, Gillingham.

Debbie Jones, prosecuting, said: “He had asked the manager for a coffee and as he turned his back, the defendant put his arm over the counter into the staff area and took a coin tray and put it up his jumper.”

Magistrates heard father-of-two Coates had not committed any offences since 2011, but after the death of a family member about six months ago, he had started taking drugs.

Magistrates placed him on a 12-month community order which will involve him carrying out 100 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £73.89 compensation.