A clumsy criminal was caught on camera walking into a lamppost before stealing a bicycle, a court heard.

Daniel Grix, 41, was picked up on CCTV going into Woodside Snooker Centre on Woodside Road, Norwich with a drink, Norwich Magistrates Court heard.

The camera then spotted him walking out "straight into a lamp post", before stealing the bike.

The court heard the victim left his orange mountain bike in the bicycle rack at the centre but left to find it missing.

Paul Roach, prosecuting, said the owner of the snooker centre reviewed the CCTV and identified the moment of the theft.

Grix, of Chapel Lane, Foulsham, appeared before city magistrates on Thursday (May 9) when he pleaded guilty to an offence of taking a bicycle without consent on February 21 this year.

He also admitted theft of various items from Spar shop in St Augustines on December 16 last year.

That put him in breach of a conditional discharge imposed in December last year following an offence of theft from a shop.

Grix also admitted the breach.

Stephen Poole, for Grix, said his client has been an alcoholic and a drug addict who had since stopped taking drugs and has got himself a job.

Mr Poole said the CCTV showed Grix, with a can of drink, walking into the snooker centre before waking out "straight into a lamp post".

He said that was the state Grix was in when he took the bike but "doesn't remember it".

He said he did not intend to steal the bike but accepted he had.

Colonel Howard Gill, chairman of the bench of magistrates, said it was "not the crime of the century" but caused inconvenience to the victim.

Grix was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £50 compensation to the owner of the bike and £50 compensation to the Spar shop.

He was also ordered to pay a £20 victim surcharge.

- Grix has also been charged with burglary in Norwich in October 2018, theft of a motor vehicle in Norwich in October 2018 and fraud by false representation, also in October 2018.

Those matters were sent to Norwich Crown Court on June 6.