A ROBBER who was arrested for a cash-in-transit theft after a routine drugs search has been jailed.

Alpesh Daudia, 20, of Baxter Road in Ilford, was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institute after pleading guilty to conspiracy to rob at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

On July 6 last year, Daudia and another man stole a cash box containing £8,770 from a security guard in broad daylight outside PC World in Romford.

That afternoon, he was searched by two police community support officers (PCSOs) who thought they saw a cannabis cigarette behind his ear as he rode his bike past Ilford Police Station.

During the search, a wad of cash stained with security dye fell to the ground.

In Daudia's flat, police found an angle-grinder, believed to have been used to open the cash box.

At another flat, in Lowbrook Road, Ilford, they found the walls smothered with security dye, where the box had been opened.

Forensic tests revealed the cash found on Daudia was in fact from another robbery, where £12,500 was stolen from the Shell garage in Sewardstone Road, Chingford, on June 19 2009.

Daudia was also sentenced to three months for possession of criminal property, to run concurrently.