A COUPLE had to get a lift home in their swimwear after a thief broke into lockers at a leisure pool and stole their clothes and car key.

Other customers at Splash in Stockton also had belongings – mobile phones, keys and money – taken by Adam Greener in February when he also drove off a Seat Leon from the car park

Ten days earlier, the 30-year-old sneaked into an office at Bargain Planet in Middlesbrough and stole a lap-top, sat-nav system, camera and watch.

Magistrates gave Greener bail, and within hours on April 19, he robbed a woman in the street after she had been to a cashpoint machine.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he rode towards her on a bike, and grabbed her handbag.

Greener's partner was so worried about his drug-induced behaviour that she reported him to the police, and he was found shortly afterwards lying in a garden near hedging.

His barrister Nigel Soppitt said: “He was desperate for money because he’d fallen back into the trap of drug use.”

Greener, of Bishopton Road, Stockton , admitted robbery, burglary, vehicle taking and four thefts, and was jailed for two years and one month.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC said: "The robbery was committed within hours of being given bail – a rather merciful course by them."