A bricklayer who won £1 million on a TV game show hosted by Ant and Dec has admitted to stealing an intensive care nurse's handbag and her car from Royal Berkshire Hospital. 

Nathan Hageman, who a millionaire on former prime time TV show Red and Black fronted by Geordie double act in 2011, has admitted the theft during a hearing at Reading Crown Court. 

The 44-year-old, who worked as a bricklayer before he won the massive cash prize, turned to crime after he squandered his riches on a luxury lifestyle, expensive cars and holidays.

Reading Crown Court has heard that Hageman stole the nurse's handbag from staff lockers in the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading earlier this year, whilst its owner was busy working a night shift.

Hageman then joined two accomplices in the hospital's car park where he used car keys found inside the bag to take the nurse's car and drive off, the court heard - causing the NHS nurse to think she was "having a nightmare" when she realised her possessions and vehicle were gone.

"As a nurse working in the NHS we only get so much to make ends meet," said nurse Samita Gurung in her victim impact statement.

"I couldn't afford to pay all my bills that month."

"After working hard as a nurse in the ICU I do get tired and all I needed that night was to go back home, shower, have food and get into a warm bed.

"I was also looking forward to the relaxing birthday week ahead of me after months of hard work - but it all got ruined."

Prosecutor Tessa Donovan told the court that Ms Gurung was working a night shift at the Royal Berkshire Hospital on the night of April 22 to April 23 this year when she went to her locker to collect her possessions.

"She realised the locker had been opened and her blue bag was missing, which contained her house keys and her car keys", Ms Donovan told Reading Crown Court.

"She went to the car park to check that her car, a white Ford Echo Sport, was still there - but it had gone."

Police were called and they reviewed the hospital's CCTV footage in which they spotted Hageman entering the hospital at around 10pm on April 22.

In her victim impact statement read out in court, Ms Gurung said: "Even as I called the police I could not believe myself: I thought I was having a nightmare."

Hageman claimed he had simply found the bag and took it with him, before allowing himself inside Ms Gurung's car and driving off accompanied by two accomplices.

He was arrested the next day in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, alongside one of his accomplices, 36-year-old Justin Clift, who appeared alongside him before Mr Recorder Clive Broe for sentencing.

Gabriella Lewis, Hageman's defence counsel, told the judge the former millionaire was "extremely remorseful" for his actions.

"This is his first time back in custody for some nine years. At the time, he was dependent on class A drugs and he deeply, deeply regrets becoming involved in drug use.

Hageman, who appeared via video link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, dressed in prisoner's grey sweater and track suit, admitted one count of taking a vehicle without the owner's permission and another of theft.

He was sentenced to 12 weeks' custody but walked free from prison  as he had already spent that past six months in custody following his arrest last April.

His co-defendant, Justin Clift, from Beaconsfield Road in Canterbury, Kent, was sentenced to 16 weeks and also released.

"Your victim was a nurse performing a vital public service," Mr Recorder Broe told the defendants.

"She should be able to feel safe when doing so. I doubt that you gave her a thought. It is clear that you have no regard for the law."

Hageman last appeared at Reading Crown Court in 2017 when he was cleared of burgling a house in Crowthorne, Berkshire, which he was working on at the time.

He was also jailed in 2014 for harassing a woman, sending the victim more than 400 threatening text messages within just 48 hours and served two-and-a-half years of a five-year sentence for attacking his ex-partner Amy Edwards in 2006.