SOHAM man Owen Tucker stole £400 worth of metal from his employer. Forty-one year old Tucker, of Churchgate Street, drove into the yard of European Metal Recycling in Snailwell at 4am on September 2. He was employed at the company as a driver, and told

SOHAM man Owen Tucker stole £400 worth of metal from his employer.

Forty-one year old Tucker, of Churchgate Street, drove into the yard of European Metal Recycling in Snailwell at 4am on September 2.

He was employed at the company as a driver, and told the security guard on duty that he needed to get the keys for his truck.

Prosecutor Katie Tindall told Ely magistrates on Tuesday that the guard became suspicious after Tucker had been gone for some time, and went further into the yard to investigate.

"The security guard found him loading a quantity of metal into his vehicle," she said.

Police enquiries revealed that Tucker had then sold the metal on to a scrap dealer at 9am that day.

Adam Hazelhurst, mitigating, said: "Mr Tucker was in quite dire financial straits at the time and he'd split up with his partner."

He added that the stolen metal had been recovered.

Magistrates sentenced Tucker to 100 hours of unpaid work for the community and he was ordered to pay £100 costs.