FOUR men have confessed to their roles on stealing more than £1.3million worth of computers from a firm in East Lancashire.

Two thousand or so laptops were taken after a lorry driver, making a delivery to Exertis, in Shorten Brook Way, Altham, was ambushed, in January 2017.

The trucker was accosted by a group of men who hit him on the head, after pulling up to the scene in a dark Audi hatchback car.

His lorry was driven to premises on the Link 665 Business Park in Haslingden, before it was unloaded, police said then.

Boxes of Medion Erazer P Series and X Series model gaming laptops, were moved to a waiting a DAF truck and the original lorry was torched on Underbank Way.

Police later confirmed that the driver, while traumatised by his ordeal, was not seriously hurt.

Four men were originally charged with kidnap, conspiracy to rob and arson and have made appearances at Burnley Crown Court.

Prosecutors have now accepted guilty pleas to a lesser charge of conspiracy to steal, involving the quartet, on the grounds they did not take part in abducting the driver or the later fire.

Lewis Knight, 28, of Leeds Road, Castleford, was remanded in custody by Judge Andrew Woolman, to await sentence at the Burnley court on March 29.

Steven Morris, 30, of Parkways Close, Lee Wakefield, 33, of Far Fold Lane, and Kirk Thompson, 31, of East Grange Road, all Leeds, were bailed to the same date.

The raid, at the time, was the third to hit Exertis in 12 months.

One thousand mobiles, valued at £500,000, and a further £250,000 worth of handsets, were taken in two raids the previous December and February.