A SECURITY officer at Tesco was hit by a vehicle as shoplifter Luke Badcock fled from the Ely store. Beverley May had challenged drug-user Badcock and asked him to return a bottle of whisky he had stolen, but he ignored her and drove off. There was a fem

A SECURITY officer at Tesco was hit by a vehicle as shoplifter Luke Badcock fled from the Ely store.

Beverley May had challenged drug-user Badcock and asked him to return a bottle of whisky he had stolen, but he ignored her and drove off.

"There was a female in the car with him, and as he drove off, the vehicle came into contact with Beverley May," prosecutor Yetunde Fawehinmi told city magistrates.

"Later the same evening, a female came back into Tesco and returned the whisky to a manager."

Badcock, 21, of Clay Street, Soham, admitted stealing a bottle of whisky worth £8.99 on March 25. He asked for two other thefts to be taken into consideration, the theft of a bottle of vodka, and the theft of two cans of Red Bull and a newspaper.

The court heard that he is already subject to a 12-month community order, with unpaid work, for an offence of making off without paying for fuel.

Badcock had admitted the extra two thefts because he wanted "to make a clean slate of things," said solicitor Nick Barnes.

"He has a lot of things going on in his life. He recently went back on a prescription with the community drugs intervention programme, and has just started a Think First course."

The court agreed to defer sentencing until August 14 to see what progress Badcock makes.