A BUNGLING crook put his foot in it when he sprinted home with a haul of stolen ladies' shoes - and dropped one in a garden.

Police confronted "Tricky" Trevor Smith with the single shoe - and matched it to the other seven-and-a-half pairs he had stashed in an alleyway near his Tolladine home.

Azeem Ali, prosecuting at Droitwich Magistrates Court, said the garden owner dialled 999 when he recognised 21-year-old Smith running across his lawn.

"The officer went to the defendant's house and searched the premises," Mr Ali said.

"He found a further seven-and-a-half pairs of shoes in a plastic bag behind a pallet in an alleyway."

The dad-of-one, who now lives in Bunn's Road, Cherry Orchard, Worcester, told the police he had bought the eight pairs of shoes from a member of his family for a knock-down price.

Smith, who had been given a deferred sentence in August 2000 for handling the stolen shoes the previous May, had since been jailed for nine months for perverting the course of justice and driving while disqualified and with no insurance.

He is not due to be released until October.

But his crimes meant he had to be re-sentenced for handling all £120 of shoes.

"In terms of seriousness, this isn't the sort of offence which attracts custody," said Nick Roberts, defending.

"He bought, from another, eight pairs of women's shoes which he knew, because of the circumstances of the transaction, were stolen.

"He turned a blind eye. He thought he would be able to increase his profit by re-selling them."

He said Smith, who admitted handling stolen goods, had come off drugs since he had been in jail.

And because he had been toeing the line, had been given a "responsible" job in the prison kitchen.

"He knows he's wasted a lot of time," he said.

Smith's girlfriend, who called him by a nickname - Tricky - ran to the dock and planted a kiss on the glass partition as he was given a two-year conditional discharge.