A thief has been locked up after police caught him just after he had committed a number of early morning break-ins.

Adrian Edwards, pictured here, has been jailed for three years and seven months after committing several offences.

Edwards, 41, and another man, Kyle Tyler, 38, tried to break into an address in Bourneville Avenue, in Chatham, at about 5am one morning in March this year.

They forced open a ground floor window and Edwards accidentally cut himself on broken glass and then set the burglar alarm off.

Edwards, of Ernest Road, Chatham, and Tyler, of no fixed address, both ran off but stopped at an address nearby in the same road where Edwards then attempted to force open a ground floor window.

However the hapless pair never gained entry and nothing was taken from the property.

Edwards then broke into a car parked in Letchworth Avenue and stole a sat nav, some loose change and a ballpoint pen.

Officers responding to the earlier burglar alarm located the pair nearby and, finding them in possession of the sat nav arrested them both on suspicion of burglary theft from the car.

During the arrest Edwards kicked and spat at the officers and he was arrested for these offences as well and was sentenced for the offences at Maidstone Crown Court earlier this week.

He was charged with burglary, attempted burglary, theft from a car and assault on police and pleaded guilty to all the offences.

Tyler pleaded guilty to the attempted burglary in Bourneville Avenue and has yet to be sentenced.

DC Sanj Tanday said: “Edwards was an opportunist thief who showed a complete disregard for the property of others.

“His arrest and prison sentence offers some protection to the residents of Chatham and he should consider the effect his actions have on the victims of his crimes.”