A man has been jailed for four years after ramming a car into a supermarket and stealing £10,500 worth of cigarettes in an early morning smash and grab.

The window of the Co-op supermarket in New Malden High Street was smashed after a car hurtled into it at about 3am on Friday, October 3.

Darren Anthony Gartell, 33, of no fixed address, was sentenced to four years at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday, November 6 for burglary and one year for trespassing with intent to steal, to run concurrently.

He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Residents were woken by the sound of the smashing glass on the night before they alerted police.

An officer on patrol who saw two balaclava-clad burglars loading up a car before driving off, was unable to stop the pair.

Police seized the stolen cigarettes from an address in New Addington some days after the burglary.

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