A MAN accused of assaulting a shop assistant in Cirencester while stealing a diamond ring claimed to a judge that he has already been tried for the alleged offence and found not guilty.

Last month, Alin Mijloc, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court to theft of a ring worth £39,950 from Walter Bull and Son jewellers on March 27 in 2018.

However, he denied assaulting the shop assistant in the process.

More details of the case were heard in the same court on April 27.

Mijloc spoke to his solicitor through an interpreter.

Mr Simmons, the barrister representing the defendant, said: "Alin Mijloc says that, under a different spelling of his surname, he believes he has already been tried by a jury on this assault matter in 2018."

Judge Rupert Lowe asked which court held the trial that Mijloc claims took place.

Mr Simmons said: "Not this courtroom, because he doesn't recognise it, but in a bigger courtroom, he says."

Judge Lowe then searched through records of all Crown Courts in England and Wales to see if anyone called Mijloc, Miljoc or Micloc - alternative spellings suggested by the defence - had been tried on such a charge.

The judge said there were no cases on the system that confirmed Mijloc's assertion that he had already had a trial.

Mr Simmons then told the court that one of the custody officers sitting in the dock remembered transporting the defendant to Swindon Crown Court either late last year or early this year for a case connected with a ring theft.

The dock officer told the court: "I remember his face and the way he was behaving. I'm sure it was Swindon.

"But I don't remember the outcome of the case that day or whether it was a trial."

The judge said: "It is always dangerous to dismiss assertions of this sort without checking them out properly.

"This does need to be checked more thoroughly than we have been able to do here today in open court."

Mijloc has been remanded in custody until Monday, May 22.