Three workers at a County Durham factory were caught with a van loaded with stolen electrical goods, a court was told yesterday.

A supervisor at the Electrolux factory, in Spennymoor, found products worth £1,786 in part of a warehouse where they should not have been.

He recorded their serial numbers and trained security cameras on the items.

The next day he saw the goods being loaded into a van and alerted the security staff. But the thieves sensed they were under suspicion and returned with the goods and were detained, said Paul Newcombe, prosecuting.

The van driver, Clive Hollingsworth, 42, told Teesside Crown Court that they "were taking the returns back from yesterday".

Driver's mate Jeffrey Charlton, 30, said that he had not checked before leaving if the right goods had been put on the van.

But factory forklift truck driver Wayne Butler, 31, admitted that someone told him to put five specific items into the loading lane and that he would be paid "a couple of hundred quid".

Hollingsworth of Delaval, Chester-le-Street, Butler of Coniston Road, Ferryhill and Charlton of Allergate, Durham, were all ordered to do 180 hours community punishment and to pay £500 prosecution costs between them after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal last July.