Last updated at 15:15 17 May 2008

A ram-raider who smashed his way into a supermarket wearing only a sheet and a pair of his girlfriend's boots has been jailed for four years.

David Ball, 32, was arrested shortly after his buttocks were caught on CCTV by surveillance cameras in the store.

The drunken thief stole his girlfriend's Renault Clio from her driveway to smash through the shop's security shutters.

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Caught on camera: David Ball rammed his way into the shop using his girlfiend's car before climbing through the gap wearing just her Ugg boots and a sheet

He was then filmed dashing through the mangled metal grille wearing "nothing more than a bed sheet and a pair of girlfriend's Ugg boots", prosecutors told Birmingham Crown Court.

Once inside the Co-op branch in Balsall Common, near Solihull, Ball broke into a cigarette machine and stole around £1,500 of cigarettes.

This was on top of the £10,000 worth of damage he caused by smashing into the metal shutters.

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Cheeky: The surveillance cameras catch a glimpse of Ball's bare behind as he makes off with £1,500 worth of cigarettes

In video shown to the court, he could be seen squeezing back through the gap and exposing his bottom to the CCTV cameras before returning to the car with his spoils.

He then led police on a high-speed car chase, reaching 80mph in a built-up 40mph zone and dodging a police "stinger" before crashing into two parked cars and spinning to a halt.

When arrested, Ball, of St Nicholas Avenue, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, said he "had been asleep in the back seat and knew nothing about the theft".

He was found to be about two and a half times the legal alcohol limit.

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Pursuit: Ball led police on a high-speed chase through Solihull before he crashed. He then told officers he had been asleep in the back of the vehicle during the raid

Later, in a police interview, he said he had no recollection of his actions in the early hours of April 16 this year, but on seeing the CCTV footage "accepted that it was him".

Thomas Kenning, defending, said: "It was an unusual offence, to say the least."

The court heard that Ball, who has fought a drug addiction for years, had committed a string of previous offences including "between 50 and 60" thefts.

Judge John Cavell said that Ball, who wore a T-shirt and jeans, had a "serious criminal record of offences of robbery, theft, wounding and aggravated vehicle taking".

He told Ball: "You took another motor vehicle and, from the video that the court has seen, used that car in what is colloquially called a ram-raid."

Ball, he said, showed considerable persistence and determination to break into the premises.

The judge went on: "You drove in such a way it's fortunate that nobody was injured or killed."

Ball was sentenced to four years, having previously pleaded guilty to burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, drink-driving and driving with no insurance or licence.

He was also sentenced to serve a further 51 weeks, to run consecutively, for breaching two suspended sentences, and was disqualified from driving for three years.

The court heard that the defendant decided - in advance of his first child's birth next January - to tell police of various other offences for which they had no evidence that he was the culprit.

The offences were taken into consideration in passing sentence.