A MAN who tried to walk out of a store without paying for more than £550 worth of goods has failed in an appeal against his four-month jail sentence.

Kenneth Leach-Smith, 42, of Dowles Road, Kidderminster, had received the sentence from Cheltenham magistrates on June 6 after admitting shoplifting.

Kate Dawson, prosecuting, said store staff at Tesco's, Cirencester, had stopped him as he left with a trolley containing electrical and other goods.

He claimed he had paid for it - then later told police he had given his wife the cash to pay for the goods. He said he had been pre-occupied because he had just heard that his son had been injured in an accident in Ghana.

David Martin, defending, said the offence happened only a week after Leach-Smith had completed a six-month sentence imposed in February this year for a fraud offence.

Leach-Smith had a job open to him as sales manager at a car showroom near Cheltenham, said Mr Martin.

"There was plainly something serious on his mind when he committed this offence," he said.

"He had problems in Ghana and his son had been badly injured in a motorcycle accident there."

However, Recorder Mark Ford QC, sitting with two magistrates, dismissed Leach-Smith's appeal and said he must serve the rest of the sentence.