A man who stole hundreds of pounds-worth of meat from a supermarket has been banned from all of the chain's stores.

A court heard Philip Green and a friend made five trips in and out of the Tesco store in Great Bentley with baskets loaded up with meat.

Their haul, which was not recovered, was worth more than £300.

On hearing the amount, District Judge David Cooper, sitting at Colchester, said: "That's an awful lot of meat, now I come to think of it - a year's supply, I should think."

When he was arrested and interviewed, Green said he was drunk when he went to the store and claimed he stole six cans of beer but no meat.

However, at yesterday's hearing he admitted a charge of theft relating to the food.

His friend has been charged and was also due at the court but did not show up.

Steven Levy, mitigating, said the 27-year-old is due to start work at Crossways garage in Jaywick on Monday.

The judge imposed a community order with 60 hours of unpaid work and banned Green, of Alvis Avenue in Jaywick, from all Tesco stores "everywhere" for a year.