A thief who pedalled away with a teenager’s £3,000 racing bike has been jailed after leading police on a wild goose chase.

Thomas Jeffries, 25, stole 14-year-old Georg Mew Jensen’s bike, just days before he was due to appear in national championships.

Former Spandau Ballet star Gary Kemp joined BBC radio DJ Robert Elms to raise £700 to replace the bike and allow him to compete – but police managed to return the bike in the nick of time.

Jeffries, of Bethnal Green Road, admitted to stealing the bike from Redbridge Cycling Centre during a hearing at Thames Magistrates Court last Wednesday.

He also admitted a second count of theft of a bike earlier in the same year. He now faces four months in jail.

Ch Supt Sultan Taylor praised the sentencing as an “excellent result”.