A serial shoplifter who stole items including a trampoline has been banned from entering more than 100 shops in the borough for two years after becoming the first person in Swale to be given a Criminal Behaviour Order.

Peter Beale, of Langley Road, Sittingbourne, was found guilty of six cases of shoplifting, including stealing a £99 trampoline from the town’s Asda.

The 36-year-old was sentenced to 240 days in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £700 to compensate victims.

A CBO was granted by Mid Kent magistrates on July 30, and means Beale cannot visit any of the 115 shops and businesses in the Swale Safe scheme, a crime reduction partnership between retailers, Swale council and police.

If he breaches the order, he could be jailed for up to five years.

As part of his sentence, Beale also has to do 80 hours community service, a drug rehab course and a Thinking Skills programme. He is also on a four-month electronic tag curfew.

PC Paul Williams from the community safety unit said: “Swale has seen an increase in high value shoplifting which is causing huge distress to our retailers.

“Working closely with Swale Safe and Swale retailers we were able to demonstrate to the magistrates a Criminal Behaviour Order on Beale was necessary to prevent him re-offending.

“Any repeat offender of shoplifting within the Swale area will now face a Criminal Behaviour Order, making it a criminal offence for them to simply enter a Swale Safe member’s shop.”

Beale’s shoplifting spree was carried out over just one week, from Monday, June 29 to Sunday, July 5.

As well as the trampoline, he stole meat from the Co-op in Milton Regis on three occasions; 15 pairs of jeans and three leather jackets worth £505 from Sittingbourne’s New Look; and £83.76 groceries from Asda.

The CBO was introduced by the government last October as part of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

It is issued to criminals by the courts after a conviction and bans them from certain activities or places and can also require them to address their behaviour by, for example, attending a drug treatment programme.