A HAPLESS thief from Buckhurst Hill has escaped jail for his part in a raid on a supermarket, after he and another accomplice went to a police station to ask about a third man who had already been arrested for the crime.

Conor Thorne, 18, of Cherry Tree Rise in Buckhurst Hill, went to Barkingside police station just hours after the robbery at the nearby branch of Somerfield in the early hours of Sunday March 7.

Thorne and Eliot Jones, 18, of Keswick Gardens in Ilford, went to the station to ask about the whereabouts of Rocky-Lee Beale, also 18, of Purleigh Way, Woodford Green, who was arrested while fleeing the scene earlier that morning.

The pair were promptly arrested when officers identified them.

The three men along with, were all given conditional discharges for 18 months, after pleading guilty at Redbridge Magistrates Court on Monday March 8.

Police were called at around 2:27am after a nearby residents saw the three breaking into the supermarket.

The men were also seen on CCTV running away from the store, having stolen some alcoholic drinks.

On arriving at the scene, officers heard shouting from the junction of Virginia Gardens and the High Street, and arrived to see three men running away.