A MAN seen acting suspiciously in a Swindon supermarket café with tin foil has been fined for shoplifting by the town’s magistrates.

Paul Gaff, 38, of Bronte Close, pleaded guilty at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to a charge of stealing three bottles of Cîroc Vodka, to the value of £90.

Crown prosecutor Pauline Lambert told the bench that on November 23 last year Gaff, a father of three, had been seen in the café at Morrisons on Dorcan Way with tinfoil in his hands, which were inside a bag he had with him.

When the store duty manager was alerted and asked Gaff to open the bag it was discovered that tinfoil had been placed on the tops of three bottles of the expensive vodka, masking the security devices on the bottles.

“This was a crime where planning was involved,” Miss Lambert told the court.

Defending Gaff, Emma Handslip said that Gaff he had not been in court since 2013 and was doing well maintaining a methadone prescription.

She said that this was a one-off offence by Gaff and a very stupid mistake to make just before Christmas.

The bench fined Gaff £80 for the theft and ordered him to pay court costs of £85 plus a victim surcharge of £30.