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A disgraced dad was caught stealing a bag full of knickers from Debenhams - by his own daughter.

Neirmal Singh targeted a branch of the department store in Bristol as part of a pilfering spree.

Bristol Crown Court heard his estranged daughter pointed him out and he was found with a stolen backpack stuffed with stolen knickers.

Singh, 49, of Jamaica Street Hostel, pleaded guilty to four thefts and attempted burglary and was jailed for 15 months, the Bristol Post reports.

Sir John Royce, sitting as a judge of the High Court, told him: “You have a terrible record.

“You were given chance after chance by the courts but you shunned those chances.

“Your barrister urges me to impose a suspended sentence.

“I’m afraid I cannot do so, bearing in mind the catalogue of offending in breach of a suspended sentence.”

Mark Worsley, prosecuting, said in June last year Singh went to Tesco Metro in Staple Hill and helped himself to £43 worth of meat and dishwasher tablets without paying.

A month later he went to Debenhams, where his daughter saw him and alerted staff and he was found with stolen underwear in a stolen backpack.

Singh returned to Debenhams in December last year and was detained with £595 worth of stolen jeans.

The court heard Singh also admitted attempting to burgle a home in Fishponds Road, where his blood was traced after he smashed a window without going inside. He told police he had only been trying to find somewhere to sleep.

Mr Worsley said Singh was on bail in January when he stole designer jackets from House of Fraser and was detained.

His offences were in breach of a previously suspended jail term, the court heard.

Caighli Taylor, defending, said: “He clearly has a very long list. It is typical of offending when he was trapped in a long-standing, deeply-rooted drug problem.”

The court heard Singh, who was convicted of robbery when he was aged around 13, had been offered help with a drug problem both in and out of prison, which had not borne fruit.