A FATHER-of-two has claimed he was forced at knife-point to burgle a Woodford Green doctors surgery after a dispute over a £200 debt.

Robert Baker, 29, from Hatch Grove, Chadwell Heath, was today released on bail after admitting stealing a computer, keyboard, monitor and projector worth £500 from the Roding Valley Medical Centre in Snakes Lane East in Woodford Green.

Employees discovered a broken third-floor window and the equipment missing from a locked conference room when they arrived for work on Monday, April 6.

Mr Baker, who lives with his long-term girlfriend and two children, one of whom was only born three weeks ago, told Redbridge Magistrates Court that he was forced to commit the offence by a group of men who he owed money to for cannabis.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Mr Baker said that if he failed to pay up they would hurt his family and he carried out the burglary while being threatened with a knife.

“He gave the equipment directly to the males and he said he wanted to hand himself in but his baby had only been born two weeks ago.”

Mr Baker's solicitor David Claxton urged the court to be lenient on his client who he said was “pressurised” into the crime.

He said: “Within the last two to three weeks a daughter has been born and the court should be slow to pursue an option that would take him away from her.

“He is motivated as a father and lives with the mother and is willing to turn his life around.”

He added: “He had a drug problem in the past and was incarcerated for assaulting a police officer and was released in April 2008.

“Since then he hasn't been using drugs.”

Mr Baker has been released from custody with an electronic tag and remains under curfew between 7pm and 8am.

He is due to be sentenced on August 10.