A COURT has heard of a thief’s bungled attempt to get away after stealing hundreds of pounds-worth of designer clothes from a shop.

It was told how the Carlisle man went to a car as he fled from a shopping centre - only to realise that the person who had the keys for it was not with him.

Dumfries Sheriff Court heard that Andrew Mitchell - who has been locked up for the crime - just didn’t seem to fit the bill of an honest shopper as he glanced over the goods in a store with a woman companion.

Staff at the Hugo Boss store at Gretna Gateway Outlet Village watched with suspicion as he went into a fitting room and came out with a hooded top.

And the court heard that as the 30-year-old bypassed the tills, the alarm went off as he went out the doors.

When challenged he ran off and to a nearby car.

But fiscal depute Jennifer McGill told the court: “He couldn’t get in because the woman still in the store had the keys.”

Mitchell, of Ullswater Road, Carlisle, pleaded guilty to stealing a quantity of clothing worth nearly £500 at the Gretna store on August 7.

The fiscal added that in addition to the top he also had two jackets in his possession.

Solicitor David Orr said Mitchell had just recently been released from a short prison sentence and had a long standing problem with heroin, but that he was now clean.

Sheriff Kenneth Robb jailed Mitchell for eight months.