A MAN was arrested when he tried to change African currency stolen from a travel agents at a different branch of the same firm.

Callers Pegasus staff in Newcastle knew of the knifepoint raid at Consett a few days earlier and called police, Durham Crown Court was told.

Stephen Walton went to the branch to change Gambian dalasi, telling staff his father had died and giving his own name and address.

The money was part of a £25,000 haul of foreign currency and travellers' cheques taken by two masked robbers from Consett, in January.

Police also found that Walton was carrying Egyptian pounds and Polish zlotys.

He said he got the money from two men he would not name, who told him it was stolen in a robbery "down South".

A few weeks later Sean Hart, who was also before the court, returned from a holiday in Malaga and was stopped at Gatwick Airport with more than £15,000 of travellers cheques and more than £3,000 in euros.

He told police he bought it for £2,000 from a man called Chubbs who said it had been taken from a car.

Ian Graham, for Walton, said his client played no part in the robbery: "If he had known it came from Callers Pegasus he wouldn't have gone to Callers Pegasus in order to realise it".

Jamie Adams, for Hart, said there was no link between his client and the robbery. Hart had been going to Malaga on holiday where he planned to change his money but "he lost his nerve".

Walton, 34, of Sherriff Hill, Gateshead, and Hart, 29, of Newbury Garth, Killingworth, near Newcastle, admitted handling stolen goods.

At a previous hearing, Walton denied being involved in the Consett robbery and his plea was accepted by the prosecution.

Walton, whose previous convictions included robbery, was jailed for a year and Hart was jailed for 18 months.

Judge Denis Orde told Hart he was being sentenced not for robbery but as a receiver, but said: "You must have been pretty close to those who committed this robbery.''