THREE men were caught red-handed as they lifted stone paving flags from a conservation area in Blackburn and loaded them into the back of a van.

The town's magistrates heard that the daylight exploit was always doomed to failure and council officials and police were quickly on the scene.

John Jason Hare, 47, Stephen Lewis, 31, and Alan Stanley Roberts, 42, all of Wigan, pleaded guilty to theft of 20 flagstones belonging to Blackburn with Darwen Council.

They were each ordered to pay £260 compensation and £40 costs and Roberts, who owned the van which had been fitted with false number places, was also fined £100.

Silvia Dacre, prosecuting, said a resident of Brantfell Road had alerted the authorities after seeing the trio lifting flags and placing them in the back of the van. When police arrived Hare asked if they could put the flags back.

Stephen Parker, representing Hare and Lewis, said: "The compensation claim shows a figure of £170 for simply taking the flags out of the van and I wouldn't have thought that was an hour's work for two men,"

"As for re-laying the flags, Mr Hare genuinely asked if they could do just that before the police took them away."