DORSET Police have explained why officers failed to arrest a man after he told them he had robbed a bank.

They told Laurence Vonderdell to hand himself in to a police station and continued to another job.

As reported, the defendant, 50, had held up Barclays in Boscombe on March 25 this year with a banana in an attempt to get arrested and secure a roof over his head after being evicted from his Christchurch Road flat.

CCTV footage played in court showed him pacing up and down outside the bank with a Sainsbury’s orange bag wrapped around an object. As he entered the building he pointed the bag at the sole cashier, Wendy Marsh.

Ms Marsh didn’t realise the object inside the bag was a banana and gave Vonderdell £1,200 from the till before raising the alarm.

Anne-Marie Garvie, defending, said her client, who suffers from mental health issues, had seen a police car afterwards.

He approached officers saying he’d committed an armed robbery and ‘wanted to get arrested’.

“They refused to do that and told him to go to the local police station,” she told the court.

“He then walked several miles to hand himself in.”

Vonderdell had recently been evicted from his flat.

He had committed the robbery solely to ensure he would be taken into custody, the court heard.

All the money was recovered and at the station Vonderdell admitted robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said: “Two officers were on their way to a job that required an immediate police response.

“While this was happening, they were approached by a man who said he was wanted by police and was willing to hand himself in but did not specify what it was in relation to.

“The officers had to make a risk assessment based on known threats posed to the public.

“Due to the urgent nature of the job they had already been tasked to attend, the officers advised the man to hand himself in at the Bournemouth enquiry office, which he was willing to do.”

The court sentenced Vonderdell to 14 months on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently.