Ugg! Naked ram-raider jailed

A man who ram-raided a supermarket wearing only a sheet and a pair of his girlfriend's designer boots, was jailed for four years today.

David Ball, who turned 32 today, was arrested shortly after his buttocks were caught on CCTV cameras at the store, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

The drunken thief, who escaped with cigarettes from the Co-op branch in Balsall Common, near Solihull, stole his girlfriend's Renault Clio from her driveway to smash through the store's security shutters.

He was then caught on camera dashing through a gap he had created in the grille wearing "nothing more than a bed sheet and a pair of his girlfriend's Ugg boots", John Edwards, prosecuting, told the court.

Once in the shop, Ball broke into a cigarette machine, stealing around £1,500 of cigarettes, on top of the £10,000 damage he caused ram-raiding the shop.

In video shown to the court, he could be seen squeezing back through the gap, exposing his bottom to the CCTV cameras as he returned to the car with his spoils.

He then led police on a high-speed car chase, reaching 80mph in a built-up 40mph zone and dodging a police "stinger" before crashing into two parked cars and spinning to a halt.

When arrested, Ball, of St Nicholas Avenue, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, said he "had been asleep in the back seat and knew nothing about the theft".

He was found to be about two and a half times the legal alcohol limit.

Later, in a police interview, he said he had no recollection of his actions in the early hours of April 16 this year, but on seeing the CCTV footage "accepted that it was him".

Thomas Kenning, defending, said: "It was an unusual offence, to say the least."

The court heard that Ball had committed a string of previous offences, including "between 50 and 60" thefts.

Judge John Cavell said that Ball, who wore a T-shirt and jeans today, had a "serious criminal record of offences of robbery, theft, wounding and aggravated vehicle taking".

He told Ball: "You took another motor vehicle and, from the video that the court has seen, used that car in what is colloquially called a ram-raid."

Ball, he said, showed considerable persistence and determination to break into the premises.

The judge went on: "You drove in such a way it's fortunate that nobody was injured or killed."

Ball was sentenced to four years, having previously pleaded guilty to burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, drink-driving and driving with no insurance or licence.

He was also sentenced to serve a further 51 weeks, to run consecutively, for breaching two suspended sentences, and was disqualified from driving for three years.

The court heard that the defendant, who has been fighting a drug addiction for years, decided - in advance of his first child's birth next January - to tell police of various other offences for which they had no evidence that he was the culprit.

The offences were taken into consideration in passing sentence.