A LIFE-SIZE cardboard cut out of a policeman, designed to scare would-be thieves, was stolen by a drunken prankster.
Hadley Nye, 30, took the cardboard copper, worth about £100, from a supermarket for a laugh.
But the joke backfired when he was arrested.
Nye, of Hyacinth Close, Clacton, admitted the theft at Colchester Magistrates’ Court and was given a six-week curfew and 20 hours of unpaid work.
Eight cardboard cut-outs of police officers were placed in petrol stations and shops across Essex to deter and confuse would-be criminals earlier this year.
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