A prolific shoplifter has finally felt the weight of the law – after an armed policeman chased him down using a teenager’s bicycle.

The officer was running after thief Phillip Padgett, 32, following reports he had stolen steaks from a supermarket in South Shields, Tyneside.

Police scrambled to the scene on June 7 after receiving reports of a man acting aggressively at the store on Stanhope Road.

The dramatic pursuit was caught on bodycam footage, which showed the officer struggling to keep up with the perpetrator as he fled through an estate.

As the thief appeared to be getting away, the officer quickly stopped a teenage boy who was riding past.

He told the surprised youth: ‘Give us your bike, I’m chasing a thief. I’ll be two minutes.’

The teenager replied: ‘Two minutes? Okay.’

Convicted: Philip Padgett, 32, of no fixed address, admitted more than 30 counts of shoplifting with a total value of almost £6,000

Bodycam footage caught the moment an armed police officer chased after Padgett using a teenager’s bicycle – and placed him in handcuffs

The police officer can be heard in the footage asking a teenager to borrow his bicycle

High steaks chase: Discarded meat thrown into the bushes has been stolen by Padgett

Video footage then shows the officer swiftly cycling through the estate before catching up with Padgett, who had earlier thrown three stolen steaks into a hedge.

He was caught minutes later and bodycam shows him being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.

Padgett, of no fixed address, admitted more than 30 counts of shoplifting with a total value of almost £6,000.

He was jailed for 40 weeks at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.