A PAIR of thieves from Bridgwater were caught red handed after staff at a skip hire company stayed up all night to guard their property.

Marcin Malka and Elliott Gooding drove from Bridgwater to Paignton, Devon, to raid the yard but were foiled by staff who were monitoring TV.

They stayed overnight at their unit because there had been previous break-ins nearby and they blocked in a BMW which the intruders had driven into the compound.

They used their phones to film the thieves and were able to hand over the evidence to the police, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Malka, aged 30, currently of no fixed abode by previously of Hamp Street, Bridgwater, and Gooding, aged 20, of Coronation Road, Adscombe, near Bridgwater, admitted theft and attempted theft.

Malka was deprived of his BMW car, banned from driving for a year, ordered to do 180 hours unpaid community work, go on a thinking skills course, and do 25 hours supervision.

Gooding was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid community work under a community order by Judge David Evans.

The judge told Malka he was ordering the seizure of the car because it had been used in a pre-planned raid. He said: "There was a degree of planning. They drove down from Bridgwater with bolt croppers and gloves, so there is higher culpability."

Miss Kelly Scrivener, prosecuting, said Malka had been stopped on the M5 in a different car with stolen car batteries the day before the attempt to steal diesel at the skip hire yard in Blackthorn Way, Paignton at 3 am on June 23 this year.

He was with Gooding and another man and they entered County Skips, where they siphoned off 150 litres of diesel worth £178, before staff at the neighbouring yard intervened.

The third man ran off and was never located but the car was blocked in and filmed and the police were called. Malka was arrested nearby and smelled strongly of diesel. He told police he was in Devon looking for work.

Mr Greg Richardson, for Malka, said he is already on a community order for previous offending at the time of his arrest, and has continued working with probation ever since.

He said he has already been doing unpaid work satisfactorily but has not had a chance to attend a thinking skills course which will help him change his behaviour.

He asked the judge to take account of a pre sentence report which said he wanted to stay away from crime and had reduced his use of illegal drugs

Mr Nigel Wraith, for Gooding, said he played a lesser role and has a much less serious criminal record than Malka.

He apologised for his client turning up late for court and said he had spent two and a half hours walking the streets of Exeter after having got lost between the station and the courthouse.