TWO men with “unenviable” criminal records caught loading £38,000 worth of clothing into a stolen van on Bradford’s Euroway Industrial Estate have been jailed.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Richard Ward, 47, and Jermaine Wilkes, 43, managed to steal 18 boxes of clothing from an HGV belonging to CMR Haulage before being detained.

Prosecutor Richard Walters said that on the evening of February 22, the driver of the lorry had arrived at Euroway but then parked up on Wharfedale Road for the night as he was too late to unload his delivery.

At around 3.40am the following morning, a security officer saw a white van reversing towards the HGV and then “two figures” transferring goods between the lorry and a white Mercedes van.

Police were called and arrived a short time later to find Ward in the van’s driver’s seat, and Wilkes behind the HGV.

The clothing was found in the back of the van, which had false plates and was later identified as being stolen.

In interview, Ward, of Hyde Park Close, Leeds, made no comment aside from admitting to officers he was a banned driver.

Wilkes, of no fixed abode, said he did not know Ward, and had simply been “picked up and told what to do.”

The court heard that Ward had 67 previous convictions, including a number for theft and theft from motor vehicles, most recently from June last year, when he was jailed for four months for stealing from an HGV.

Wilkes had 24 previous convictions, and had only been released on licence from prison in October last year part-way through an eight-year sentence for conspiring to commit robberies at pubs in Leeds.

Howard Shaw, for Ward, said his client’s offending was linked to a long-standing problem with amphetamine addiction.

The court heard that Wilkes had been diagnosed with a number of mental health difficulties during his latest prison sentence.

The father-of-two said he had got involved in the incident in a bid to get money to raise the deposit for a property of his own that would allow his access to see his children.

Both defendants pleaded guilty to theft, with Ward also admitting a charge of driving while disqualified.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, was told that Wilkes had been recalled to prison and was now due to serve the remainder of his sentence, set to expire in 2021.

He told the pair: “You don’t need any lectures from me, you know the score as well as I do.

“You used a stolen van and were dedicated to this high-value theft.

“There you were transferring box after box, but fortunately you were caught in the act.”

Judge Durham Hall jailed Ward for 30 months, with Wilkes sentenced to 27 months in prison.