A MAN who bared his buttocks at a shop assistant before leading police on a five-mile chase has been warned he faces jail.

Police were called to the Tesco garage in Calne on April 6 shortly after 7am after Christopher Padget stole a £2.50 tub of hand cream, spread his buttocks as he left the shop then drove off in his Land Rover.

Officers chased him down the A3102 before managing to bring his 4x4 to a stop.

Padget, 44, of Hillworth Road, Devizes, had previously denied offences of dangerous driving, theft and outraging public decency. But at a hearing at Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday morning he changed his pleas to guilty.

He had been charged by the police with contravening the coronavirus regulations and failing to stop for officers, but the charges were marked withdrawn by the prosecutor at the magistrates’ court.

Bailing Padget for sentence on August 18, Judge Peter Crabtree ordered a pre-sentence report from the probation service.

He said: “It will be all options. Custody is the starting point but probation can look at the other options.”