A wanted criminal has been jailed following two years on the run after he challenged police to a game of "cops and robbers" and lost.

Sean Bowman, 44, had been on the run for nearly two years when he called astonished police officers out of the blue and taunted them by saying "let's play cops and robbers. I've been wanted for two years - come and find me if you can".

Bowman, a former martial arts teacher in Sutton, had been on the run since 2011 after he assaulted a woman in the car park of the Butterchurn pub in Erskine Road.

During his time on the run he also burgled a plumbing merchant in Guildford  and an electrical warehouse in Guildford.

Police had been trying to track him down and Detective Constable Ian Griffith and Detective Sergeant James Knight had been making enquiries as to his whereabouts throughout London, Surrey and Hampshire when they got the phone call from Bowman himself on February 20.

From there, it took police just a day to find the hapless criminal at his girlfriend's house in Whitmore Way, Horley, Surrey.

Bowman had been running a bath when police burst into the house and found him cowering in a bedroom wardrobe.

DC Griffith said: "We had obviously touched a nerve somewhere and that had prompted the call to us."

Bowman admitted two counts of burglary at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court on February 22.

He was ordered to pay £429 in fines, compensation and court costs. He was cautioned for the assault.